Basque Nationalist Action
Basque Nationalist Action Eusko Abertzale Ekintza / Acción Nacionalista Vasca | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 1930 |
| Banned | February 2008 |
| Newspaper | Acción Nacionalista(1932-1933) Tierra Vasca-Eusko Lurra(1933-1940, 1956-1976) Eusko Ekintza(2005-2008) |
| Membership | Herri Batasuna(1978-2001) |
| Ideology | Basque nationalism Basque independence Left-wing nationalism Anticapitalism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| Party flag | |
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Basque Nationalist Action(Basque:Eusko Abertzale Ekintza,Spanish:Acción Nacionalista Vasca,EAE–ANV) is aBasque nationalistparty based inSpain.Founded in 1930, it was the first Basque nationalistpolitical partyto exist running on asocialistprogram. On 16 September 2008, the party was outlawed by theSpanish Supreme Courtbased on ties withETA.The Spanish ruling was appealed to theEuropean Court of Human Rights,which, after reviewing the question, upheld the Spanish courts on the matter.
History
[edit]It was formed in 1930, upon the reunification of the ultraconservativeAberrigroup and the moderate majorityComunión Nacionalista Vascain theBasque Nationalist Party,by those who refused to support the traditional clerical ideology of the party. Its support was restricted to urban middle class and, as such, was a minority party.[1]ANV played a minor role during theRepublic,when it usually aligned with left and republican parties (being even part of thePopular Frontin 1936) and in theCivil War.It was a part of theBasque Government in Exilefrom 1936 to 1979, and of theSpanish Republican government in Exilefrom 1938 until 1946, represented by aminister without portfolio,Tomás Bilbao.
Whendemocracy resumed in Spain,ANV run by itself for thefirst contemporary Spanish general electionpresenting candidatesin BiscayandGipuzkoa,achieving a meagre 0.64% of the total votes in the Basque country.[1]During these years, ANV received compensation for the property seized after the war by the Francoist government.
After the 1977 election, ANV chose not to run for elections by itself but run in subsequent elections as a minor part of the electoral platforms of theBasque National Liberation Movement.It was not a part ofKASthough. Thus, when the Basque independentist party,Batasuna,was banned by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2002 after government allegations of its close relationship to ETA, EAE-ANV remained as a legal party.
Rise to prominence
[edit]
The banning of Batasuna drew attention to the virtually unknown and inactive EAE-ANV as it was informally designated by Batasuna's ranks as the political heir of the illegalized Batasuna.
Consequently, it was during the 2007municipalandprovincialSpanish elections when the new EAE-ANV received intensive media and political attention. Nearly half of itslistswere declared illegal prior to the elections, because a significant portion of the candidates on them had previously run for either Batasuna, EH or HB (different reincarnations of the same base). This despite the fact those parties were legal when these candidates ran for them. The Supreme Court declared that those EAE-ANV lists were providing cover to an illegal party (Batasuna), and, therefore, those list including former Batasuna members were ineligible.
EAE-ANV only disclosed its intentions to run for those elections with the shortest possible legal notice.[citation needed]Thus, the legal assessment declaring some of the lists ineligible was made in a hurry, which also left little time (24 hours) for appeal on the part of the party. Some EAE-ANV members then claimed that a "presumption of guilt"was applied that remained to be properly proven in due time.[2]However, EAE-ANV could take part in the elections with its legal lists, and received a grand total of some 187,000 votes (those votes for lists declared ineligible prior to the elections were declared null). Among the illegal lists were those ofBilbao,San SebastiánandVitoria;but not those ofPamplonacity council, where EAE-ANV has two representatives.
Current status
[edit]In February 2008, the Spanish government declared EAE-ANV illegal as a precautionary measure to prevent them from taking part in the year'sgeneral election.[3]This suspension was later on confirmed by theSpanish Supreme Courtdeclaring EAE-ANV illegal. The case was taken by the defendants to theEuropean Court of Human Rights,which upheld the Spanish court rulings stating that the EAE-ANV candidatures were, in effect, a "fraud" constructed to circumvent the previous outlawing of Batasuna.[4][5]
Despite the fact that the party was declared illegal, the court ruling was notretroactive,which meant that those elected members of EAE-ANV remained in their positions as city councilors until thenext Spanish local electionwas held in 2011.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ab"Un partido con historia".Archived fromthe originalon 2009-02-02.Retrieved2009-07-26.
- ^"380 Listas Vetadas porque Candidatos Pertenecen a la Izquierda Abertzale".Gara. 2007-05-07. Archived fromthe originalon 2012-02-12.Retrieved2008-06-20.Article in Spanish
- ^"Garzón asfixia al entorno de ETA".El Pais. 2008-02-09.Retrieved2008-02-11.
- ^El Pais; Estrasburgo respalda la anulación de las candidaturas de ANV
- ^Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights(in French)
External links
[edit]| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
- Basque Nationalist Action
- 1930 establishments in the Basque Country (autonomous community)
- 2008 disestablishments in the Basque Country (autonomous community)
- Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights
- Political parties in the Basque Country (autonomous community)
- Banned secessionist parties
- Banned socialist parties
- Political parties established in 1930
- Political parties disestablished in 2008
- Banned political parties in the Basque Country (autonomous community)