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Banned Basque party gets 101,000 votes and exclusion of Basque Left-independists produces bizarre el
 international |
rights, freedoms and repression |
news report
 Wednesday March 11, 2009 13:59 by Cormac Mac Gall
Amid a wave of state repression against the Basque independence movement including the banning of its parties, the recent elections in the three south-western provinces of the Basque Country, the "Basque Autonomous Region", nevertheless resulted in 101,000 votes cast for the pro-independence Left. However, the exclusion of a significant section of the Basque nationalist spectrum, while not opposed by the conservative majority Basque nationalist party, looks like ending that party's tenure of power in the Basque Parliament.
 Democracy 3 Million political platform for Basque independence and socialism at its founding press conference The elections on March 1st in three of the four southern (i.e. Spanish-controlled) provinces of the Basque Country were a sham by bourgeois democratic standards. The pro-independence Left were prevented by the Spanish State from putting forward any candidates, which left the field to conservative Basque separatist and Spanish-union social democratic and conservative parties. Faced with such a choice, just over 34% of the electorate stayed at home.
The Spanish state has in recent years banned political parties of the pro-independence left, the izquierda abertzale, from standing in elections and, on occasion, has declared them illegal too. Two such parties were banned last year and another two just a few weeks before the election. Askatasuna (meaning 'freedom' in Euskara) was one and Democracy 3 Million the other. Eighteen prominent public figures in the areas of sport, music, language, trade unions and social work had come together to form D3M in order to stand in the elections due in March.
A clamour began from right-wing groups and media in Spain that they should not be permitted to stand. Spain's Law of Political Parties was invoked in order to ban both parties. Under this law, no party which supports terrorism can stand in elections and for the Spanish state it is sufficient that the parties do not condemn acts by ETA, the armed Basque resistance organisation. They also fine-comb through the list of citizen's signatures that are required by Spanish law in order to validate a party to stand in elections. A previous conviction among the signatories for an offence deemed to have been terrorist-related, no matter how many years ago, or even membership of a banned organisation, even though that may have been prior to its banning, can be sufficient to disqualify the party.
Ironically, just two weeks before the bans, a UN report had been published that criticised the application of precisely that piece of legislation. Martin Scheinin, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, pointed out that it can be used to ban any organisation which is working legally for similar aims to ETA (e.g. Basque independence, socialism and the strengthening of the Basque language and culture). The legislation even appeals to Israeli ultra-Zionists: Avigdor Leiberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, which was successful in the recent Israeli elections, recently stated that he wants to bring a similar law into the Israeli state.
The Spanish state, presumably in order to neutralise opposition still further, declared D3M illegal, arrested eight of its leaders, raided its offices and took away equipment, then locked the offices and closed down its web-site. The pro-independence Left however declared that they would campaign for the party in the elections, banned or not.
Different web-sites and email were used to distribute ballot papers created by the movement, with the names of candidates of the banned party in each of the electoral areas on them. People were encouraged to print them off and use them as their “golden vote” on March first. The Basque daily GARA, whose editorial line is close to the izquierda abertzale, commented before the elections that the Spanish state was failing to quell support for the “golden vote” or to impede its many avenues of distribution.
The Spanish state tried, however. It tried to have all the web sites closed and banned protest demonstrations, while the pro-Spanish Basque police, the Ertzaintza, intimidated and arrested campaigners, raided social centres and confiscated ballots and leaflets – even to display a D3M poster was sufficient to get one arrested. Most of the Spanish and Basque media ignored the statements and campaign of the banned parties, giving weight to the claim of some that the media are complicit in the Spanish state's attempt to isolate the movement.
However, when the votes were counted, it emerged that just short of 101,000 people, nearly 9% of those who voted, had voted for D3M. Had the party been permitted to stand, on that showing alone it would have gained seven members of the Basque Autonomous parliament. Of course, had they been permitted to stand, presumably some of those who abstained would also have voted for them and some of the votes that in the event went to other parties would have gone to them instead. On that basis, one can speculate that the 15% - 20% support that the movement enjoyed in the past still holds steady.
But the absence of the pro-independence Left candidates from the list of the elected threw up some anomalies. Although the PNV, the right-wing Basque nationalist party, won more seats than any other party, it still only got 30 out of the 75. If the other Basque nationalist parties all joined with it that would still only give them a total of 37 seats – one short of an outright majority. For the first time since the region was given limited autonomy by Spain, 30 years ago, the majority of seats are held by parties that support union with Spain (PP – 13; PSE-EE – 24; UpyD – 1).
If all the Spanish-union parties join together, they can rule, but that would put the Basque nationalists into opposition in a Basque Parliament. Or if the social-democratic PSE-EE, which has a working arrangement in the Spanish parliament with the PNV, goes into coalition with the latter, they could also rule. However, the social democrats consider the leader of the PNV, Ibarratexe, to be an “extremist” and are likely to demand that he steps down as Prime Minister of the Basque Parliament, a position he has held following three previous elections. In a PNV-PSE government the nationalist posturing of the PNV is likely to be severely restricted and those who want to see Basque culture and independence advance will have to look either to the small Basque parties or to the banned pro-independence Left movement.
The Spanish state has been seen once again by Basques to be undemocratic and repressive and has been condemned not only by its supporters but by many other sectors in Basque society. The Basque pro-independence Left movement has carried out what they call “one of the biggest acts of civil disobedience in Europe” and appears to be holding its support steady, despite bans on parties and popular organisations, harassment, intimidation, raids, arrests and even torture.
Ends.
Collage with D3M election poster (displaying one could get one arrested), police repression, arrest of a D3M leader, section of protests at arrrests
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Comments (7 of 7)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7In the last week of February 2009 Emilio Gutierrez feeling upset by the destruction caused to his house by an ETA bombing took a lump hammer and walked resolutely into the "herriko taberna" or pro-batasuna bar of the town of Lazcoa and smashed the place to bits. Within a few days he was forced to leave the town of his youth where indeed his father had served as a socialist party councillor because of the reaction of the pro-batasuna community who termed his act on of pure "fascism" and pointed out rather ironically that the state had paid for his house to be repaired.
Emilio Gutierrez is now in hiding.
The party which saw the largest increase in its vote share in the last regional elections in the Basque, whether recognised under law or not - was in fact Aralar - the pro-independence grouping which rejects and condemns ETA.
something in that.
& it aint the price of tapas or pizza.
hey, mister,, tapas dont exist in the basque country... so if u dont know that what could u know about political situation..
now that thing about aralar.. yes, they went up... why? because clearly some of banned parties (ideologies) voters decided to actually vote for the next best thing and not just cast a spoiled vote.. so then if u add the nearly 10% of purposely spoiled votes to the jump in support for aralar.. then u get, more or less, the same amount of votes as EHAK got in the last elections.. maybe a bit more.. so what exactly are u trying to say..
and i have to thank the author for some of the info... here in spain u dont hear anything (in none of the mainstream media) about the UN criticizing spanish laws.... its all extremely controlled, big brother stuff....
oh and another thing.. the spanish reporting of the acts of the real and continuity ira makes me want to tear my hair out.. i have friends thinking that the ira is back... and they opened the news talking about 'a terrorist attack in the UK'
just goes to show.
Though tapas are called pinxas in the Basque language it never ceases to amaze the majority of visitors to Spain that the best tapas sold there are made to Basque recipes and considering that few Irish people know a pinxa from a "pinxat" and also considering that the majority of people in the Basque do not speak Euskera on a day to day basis - it seems proper to draw the analogy.
Once Emilio Gutierrez had single-handedly smashed the "herriko taberna" or pro-batasuna bar which dot the Basque cities and countrysides and where one goes for a bit of revolutionary chat, donation to prisoner relief and traditional analysis on the woes of imperialism be it Donasti or Craigavon - the people in the bar did what you'd expect anyone to do in the face of such violent and irrational rage.
They called the police.
Or the Ertzaintzi as they're known.
It has not been mentioned above that the strategy of almost all the abertzale movement in the Basque has been to isolate and undermine the PNV and its coaltions over the last years. They have spent as much time attacking the policies of the Lehandakari and in between supporting the bombing of train lines, the murder of a socialist councilor (just like Emilio's dad) and the assassination of a builder in his 70's for bringing infrastructure links to a region with 17% unemployment as they have eating pinxas or refusing to serve tourists tapas until they get the language right.
An omlette is a tortilla no matter how you break the eggies.
im glad u used the 'pintxas' analogy.... now,, if your cultural education is that low how can u expect to persuade anyone to agree with your political knowledge..
continuing the intriguing debate.. pintxas are actually PINTXOS, or more commonly, PINCHOS, which is the castillian word for 'little stick/ toothpick'--- they are actually different from tapas in that they have the pincho in the middle of them so u can lift it and eat it with the stick... naturally they are bitesize... on the otherhand tapas can be anything which falls into the 'it fits on a saucer' size category.. without the stick and without the bread! pinchos from the north.. tapas from the south... now there wee go! and ive never had any problem eating pinchos in bilbao, linguistic or cultural... maybe someone had a chip on their shoulder,, eh?? ;-)
u talk about how less than half of the basque people speak their language... of course... another few decades of francoism and it would be like irish... or scots gallic... is that what u prefer.. and it is quite sad to hear people denying them their right to recuperate those forty odd lost years of their heritage! i suppose u think we should drop irish from the leaving cert and cut funds for gaelscoileanna too?? well if not then rectify your opinion on language policy in the basque country.
oh, and about the abertzale movement.. is it illegal to think that you are different? .. especially when there is so much cultural evidence (language, sports, PINCHOS) and thus is it illegal to want independence.??.. and maybe its actually logial that they attack the PNV being left-wing and not conservitave like their fellow nationalist party. maybe you would just like to outlaw any expression of left wing ideals, and/or the desire for independence... that would be a great solution.. wouldnt it? well theyre trying it here with those shambolic elections...
sledge-hammers at the ready.. its time to smash the weak little defenseless cultures!! bring on behemoth!
Indymedia Ireland where people can go to learn more about Iberian culinary terms than simply digest unquestioning the notion that the Basque invented Cod.
Emilio Gutiérrez as his surname suggests was probably a patrolinear descendent of a migrant lured to the Basque region by employment or "transplanted" to Euskal Herria by the Francoists in the mid 1960's. Though of course a Spanish surname doesn't mean you're Spanish - ask Iñaki de Juana. His dad joined a party which was then illegal and after the transition and the adoption of the political party law was allocated funds and its lists accepted by the electoral commissions. It's a funny democracy all round. People don't vote for or against individual candidates in constituencies like for example they could vote for against Michael Mc Dowell. Rather they vote for the list presented by the registered parties. Even if they don't like the number one on the list, if they vote for the party - number one will get the votes. Once number one has enough votes for a seat, number two starts getting a look in. And so on down the list. This means the central parties at regional and national level control the lists. As Ogi the last commentator will know, Jose Montilla the first Andalusian to be elected president of the Catalan Generalitat only got the job because he had been appointed first on the PSC/PSOE list by the Madrid administration.
Back to the land where Emilio Gutiérrez brought his lump hammer into a basque republican bar and smashed it up because an ETA action had destroyed his house, souvenirs, nics nacs and memorabilia..,
Every time out for the last years the abertzale movement has presented two lists. One includes individuals who were before elected as members of Batasuna or its predeccesor HB. Despite these now being proscribed parties who don't get funding and who thus are not recognised and votes for whom are not counted as valid. The other list presents under any political party name they can find which is moribund. Bingo they design a new logo, put up posters, refer to an ancient political party being banned and well......... if clann na tamhlachta or the Democratic Socialist Party or heck the PD's suddenly ran for election in Ireland - would you think they were the same people in real continuity???
Emilio Gutierrez brought his lump hammer into the bar on the last Tuesday of the month of February and smashed the place up. Senseless irrational hate-filled misguided violence.
taste familiar?
Nobody told this Emilio Gutierrez to leave his town. Furthermore he was arrested after he did what he wanted and destroyed the abertzale bar. He was released just few hours after. In the case a pro-independence person does something like this he/she'd have to face 5 days incommunicado, probably tortured (as Amnesty International and United Nations have claimed once and again), imprisoned somewhere in Spain, at hundreds of miles from his/her family and, after some years, sentenced to at least 10 years in prison and he/she'd have to his/her time to the full.
The attacks against democracy in the Basque Country are something absolutely unbeliavable to happen at the heart of Europe. The Basque people (the whole nation, not just the three western provinces) must have the opportunity to decide their future freely. The Spanish and French states have to respect their will. That's what it's at the core of the 5 centuries conflict. Democracy and respect. Easy, innit?
I think that contributor "up to the line and beyond" was fairly matched by Ogi in the debate on my article (and some culinary lectures that were not in my article). My article was entirely factual and related acts of censorship, repression, torture (in passing), covered more extensively in previous contribution) and the Basque movement resistance.
That doesn't mean that I agree with everything done by the movement (or parts of the movement) about which I'm writing. But since you raised the issue about "socialist" councillors, it's surely only fair to inform the readers that what you're referring to is the equivalent of the British Labour Party, which has brought in and is implementing much of the repressive legislation being criticised internationally and which also was proved to have run the murder gangs of the GAL (assassination squads against Basque resistance figures).
But all ideology aside, are you saying that you support the closure of newspapers, banning of parties and organisations, torture and jailing of political activists because you don't like their programme or don't agree with the actions of some of their adherents?
Another question: If you want the Basques to eschew political violence, do you think that the Spanish state is leaving them much other option (see "Give up politics or spend 30 years in Jail", recent article Indymedia)?