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Article 10: the right to freedom of expression (accepted) Article 11: the right to freedom of association (accepted) Article 13: the right to an effective remedy before a national authority (not accepted)Batasuna's legal action is directed against the party law (Ley de Partidos) from 2002. It was passed in the Spanish parliament with an overwhelming majority and was only refused by smaller left-wing parties from Catalonia, Basque Country and Galicia. They saw it as a "major blow against law based government". Batasuna argues in its reasons for the case, that the law was designed to ban the "political activities of the Basque independence movement" . It was written in a "vague, not defined and confused" way to allow for a "speedy illegalization" of the organisations concerned. The Spanish policy of banning organisations supports this assessment. Since 2003 the party law led to a multitude of banned parties and electoral lists within the left-wing Basque pro-independence movement: Ban of Batasuna in March 2003: the ban was processed very fast to be in place before the council elections, where Batasuna was thought to gain 15-20% of the votes. Ban of the Basque Citizens list (HZ, Herritarren Zerrenda): on 24. April 2004 the Citizens list was founded to participate in the European elections. 49.000 signatures in support of the candidature were presented on 10. May 2004 and the new list was officially accepted for the elections. On 18. May the brand new government of Zapatero, which was in office only since April 2004, started accelerated proceedings to ban the new group. They argued that 33 of the 54 candidated were connected to "the complex Batasuna and/or ETA, BNLM, Segi or other outlawed organisations". These links were absolutely gratuitous, as none of the candidates was involved in any penal or administrative process that would prove this kind of link. A documentation about the banning of HZ can be found on the website of the Basque human rights organisation Behatokia (Link to website, see: Herritarren Zerrenda, English language) . Ban of almost 400 Basque electoral candidatures, which were proposed for the council elections in May 2007: Ralph Streck reports "Ban of Basque electoral lists confirmed" (Indymedia, 12.5.2007, German language) :
... All 246 electoral lists of the new group Abertzale Sozialistak (AS/Patriotic Socialists) are banned. Even more outrageous is the judgement in the case of the traditional party Eusko Abertzale Ekintza (Basque Patriotic Action/EAE-ANV). They get to ban 133 of the ANV's council and provincial lists. This is more than half of all lists and has an impact on 85 % of the voters. That means candidates of the almost 80 years old party can be elected for some councils only whereas in neighbouring councils candidates are banned. E.g. the EAE-ANV will have representatives in the council of Iruña (Pamplona), but not in the regional parliament of Navarra. In some strongholds of the left-wing pro-independence movement the ultra right-wing Spanish Partido Popular (People's Party PP) automatically has the majority, if they manage to get more than 5% of the votes, because all other lists are banned ... It is striking that none of the courts rules against the criteria, which are used by the socialist government for the bannings. If there are three candidates on a list who in the past legally were candidates for Batasuna or one of its predecessors, the whole list is banned. Even worse, candidates, whose names any time in the past were on a list which was then banned because of supposed Batasuna candidates, are now the reason for banning the new list. With this procedure, lists are banned without any Batasuna candidates (or candidates of predecessors) on them. Candidates who never ever had their civil rights diminished, are now faced with a factual ban of the fundamental right to stand for elections. In small councils it is almost impossible to find candidates who never were on a lateron illegalized list or who after Franco put their names forward as candidates for the left-wing pro-independence movement ..."Therefore the legal action of Batasuna at the European Court of Human Rights is supported by other parties and groups, e.g. Herri Batasuna and HZ, which have been banned as well.
ETA, Batasuna, ANV - the recent threats of the gang (they refer to a recent announcement of ETA) will determine the future of their political branch (they refer to EAE-ANV).The Spanish Government doesn't limit their grim fight against the Basque pro-independence movement to criminalisation and banning of parties. Social initiatives, newspapers and pubs are threatened by bans as well.
"... Today in Bilbao there will be tens of thousands of people rallying against the bans and they got an additional reason. A short letter of the National Special Court (Audiencia Nacional) informed the journalists of the banned Basque newspaper Egunkaria that there will be a court procedure against them. It's democratical madness that it took four years after banning the paper to decide on a review of the ban through the courts. But the fundamental right to freedom of expression and the freedom of the press can be diminished even further. The Special Court opens the proceedings although even the Public Prosecution Service asked for dismissal. There is no evidence whatsoever to support the claim against the newspaper to be part of the underground organisation ETA. ..."writes Ralph Streck in the already above cited article in May 2007. Meanwhile the sentences in the so called 18/98 mass process against 52 leading members of social initiatives and newspapers are confirmed: 525 years in prison for 47 of the accused. A sentence to penalize political attitude with no crime committed. In addition there is the serious issue of arbitrary detentions under special emergency legislation. There are allegations against the Spanish police to blackmail people through systematic torture into signing statements pre-written by the police. For many years Amnesty International and the UN commissioner for Human Rights demand at least video control of the interrogations which can be conducted for five days incommunicado, i.e. without any contact to the outside.
"The pro-independence left says, that negotiation is the only way. It is important to have in mind, that - in my opinion - the pro-independence left maintains a very democratic position in this conflict resolution process. And this includes ETA. Because it has the view, that agreement has to be reached among all the parties, and that the agreement has to respect the rights of the Spanish community that lives here too ... "The Spanish Government should take the decision of the European Court of Human Rights seriously and should not start any new banning procedure. They should stop the mass processes and release the Batasuna leadership from jail.