Legal in France, Illegal in Spain

This article sheds light on how Batasuna (and Udalbiltza for that case) is legal in France while in Spain it has been banned over non substantiated accusations that it is ETA's political wing.

Here you have it:

Basque Batasuna party legal in France

By Elizabeth Bryant

United Press International
From the International Desk
Published 5/12/2003 3:40 PM

PARIS, May 12 (UPI) -- The Basque Batasuna Party is banned in Spain, and now figures on Washington's list of groups with suspected terrorism connections.

But Batasuna is alive and well in Bayonne, France, where it has established a French headquarters, and counts two party sympathizers on the local town council.

"For the moment, Batasuna's illegality is only recognized by the Spanish nation, and we haven't entered into that debate," said Yves Ugalde, cabinet director for the Bayonne city hall, in an interview United Press International Monday. "And Spain hasn't asked us to get into the debate."

Last week, Spanish courts barred hundreds of independence candidates from running in upcoming municipal elections because of their alleged Batasuna links.

The party says it champions an independent Basque homeland in southern France and northern Spain through the ballot box. But the government of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar argues Batasuna is nothing less than the political arm of ETA.

During Aznar's trip to Washington last week, the Bush administration also added Batasuna to its list of groups risking financial sanctions, for allegedly supporting terrorism.

Neither Spain nor the United States has asked Paris to place Batasuna on a similar list, a French Interior Ministry spokesman said Monday -- though such a request was apparently made to the European Union.

Nor has Spain asked France to ban Batasuna, the spokesman told UPI.

Leaders of Batasuna's Bayonne office could not be reached for comment. But Joseba Alvarez, a top official from the former Batasuna party in Spain, denied any links to terrorism.

"We consider ETA as a violent answer to an unresolved problem," he said in a telephone interview from San Sebastian, Spain. "We've been in existence for 23 years -- and become illegal only two months ago. Jose Marie Aznar is exploiting the climate created by Sept. 11."

As for Batasuna's arm in Bayonne, he said, "its a legal formation, just like any other" which campaigns to promote the Basque language, and more jobs, among other social issues, he said.

Despite the party's peaceful claims, Bayonne officials are eyeing the French Batasuna arm warily since its barring from Spain.

"Sure, there are lots of demonstrations in Bayonne, and Batasuna participates in each time," Ugalde said. "But they are totally correct, and legal."

"But the decision (to ban Batasuna) may have direct repercussions here," he added. "Although things are calm, for the moment.

Ties between Basque nationalist movements in France and Spain have grown in recent years. But French movements are far smaller than their Spanish counterparts, and receive a tiny fraction of popular support.

Meanwhile, cross-border cooperation has also grown between French and Spanish law enforcement officials.

French police, for example, arrested six alleged ETA members in southern France on Friday and Saturday. Their efforts received a warm thanks from the Spanish government.

And it is not exactly that the French authorities love the Basques, it is only that they are not as rabidly vicious as Aznar and Garzon. Until today that is, it could change.

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