Foro Ermua demands the law be enforced regarding the Supreme Court decisions

Bilbao. 13 June 2003. Foro Ermua urges the state powers to enforce the Supreme Court decisions on the dissolution of the parliamentary group that is the successor of Batasuna in the regional assembly in Vitoria; and, if the PNV (Basque Nationalist Party) and EA (another nationalist party) continue to disobey, to prosecute those responsible. No other option can be considered if progress is to be made in cornering ETA and preserving Spain’s democratic regime, which the nationalists are currently threatening.

The United Left (IU-EB) cannot expect to shirk its responsibilities -or rather to save face- merely by shying away from voting in Vitoria. Failure to take a clear stand on the side of the Supreme Court and, accordingly, against its government partners in the Basque Country regional Government, amounts to collaborating by omission in the possible offences committed by them.

The declarations made by the leaders of the PP (Popular Party) and the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Party) stating that nobody should be allowed to get away with putting themselves above the law are judicious and encouraging. We urge both parties to reaffirm their cooperation in the framework of the Pro-Freedom and Anti-Terrorism Agreement vis-à-vis PNV and EA’s calculating provocation against the rule of law. In view of the gravity of the situation, the FORO ERMUA wishes to congratulate the PSOE and the PP for managing to overcome their differences, thereby ensuring that the General Councils and Provincial Government of Álava (one of the three Basque Country provinces) remain for a further four years in the hands of the constitutionalists -the main achievement of the 25 May local elections.

Nowhere else in the European Union has a disobedience been witnessed like that of the PNV and EA leaders in Vitoria over the past weeks. These leaders should realise that, if the Public Prosecution Service eventually has to step in, the president of the Basque regional Parliament, Juan María Atuxta, will not receive a single word of sympathy from any of the EU governments. Such is the isolation from Europe their antidemocratic policies earn them, thereby harming Euskadi’s interests.

Furthermore, it is hardly surprising that this strategy of constant confrontation with the Spanish government that the PNV has been deliberately pursuing, undermining institutional stability, has had serious and lasting effects on Basque citizens’ well-being. Throughout the past 25 years only one autonomous region -Asturias- has recorded a lower economic growth rate than the Basque Country. Whereas Spain as a whole is really converging towards EU levels of prosperity, the nationalist governments and their ETA allies have caused the Basque autonomous region to lag behind for a quarter of a century.

The political stability of the Basque Country, the survival of the rule of law and the economic well-being of our people require the nationalist leaders to comply fully and immediately with the decisions of the Supreme Court and to put an end to the main source of political tension by doing away with the Ibarretxe Plan [for the Basque Country to try to enter into a “free-association” agreement with the rest of Spain] for good.
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[Translator’s Note]  On 27 March 2003 the Special Division of the Supreme Court decided unanimously to declare the radical Basque party Batasuna illegal, together with the other names the group had adopted in the past: Euskal Herritarrok (EH) and Herri Batasuna. The Special Division consists of the President of the Supreme Court and 15 other senior judges of that same court. The decision to ban Batasuna was based on the new Law on Political Parties passed on 27 June 2002 with the votes of over 90 percent of Spanish Parliament.

Foreseeing the adverse consequences of the legislative reforms being promoted by the Spanish government and by the Popular Party (PP) and the Socialist Party (PSOE), Batasuna changed the name of its parliamentary groups in the Basque regional Parliament and in the Parliament of Navarre back in April 2002 to Sozialista Aberzaleak (SA). Its members remained exactly the same as before the change of name.

In the regional Parliament of Navarre, which is controlled by the centre-right UPN party and by the PSN (Navarre Socialist Party), the abertzale [radical nationalist] group SA was dissolved and its members had to join the mixed group that did not previously exist and was established for this purpose.

The Basque autonomous Parliament, in which the nationalist parties (PNV, EA and SA itself) hold a majority, refused to dissolve the parliamentary group SA and to transfer its members to the mixed group, claiming that SA is independent from the outlawed Batasuna party and that the Supreme Court is not qualified to decide on the future of the parliamentary groups in Vitoria’s regional assembly.

Finally, on 20 May 2003, the 16 senior judges of the Special Division of the Supreme Court decided unanimously, as part of the measures to enforce the March judgment banning Batasuna, to give the Basque regional Parliament and, in particular, its president, Juan María Atutxa (PNV), five days to dissolve the Grupo Sozialista Aberzaleak.

Two weeks later the Basque regional assembly had still not agreed to put into practice the Supreme Court decision -which it cannot appeal against- and its president had told the court it was “unable to comply with” the decision. Therefore, on 12 June the Special Division decided to send the details of this case to the State Prosecution Service for the latter to ascertain the offences arising from this failure to comply with the court judgment and the parliamentarians responsible for the aforesaid offences.