Suspending Basque Autonomy

Threats, that is about the only thing that Madrid dispenses to the Basques.

Here you have the latest development:

24 Jun 2003 15:34:05 GMT

Spain warns Basques it may suspend autonomy

BILBAO, Spain, June 24 (Reuters) - The Spanish government's senior representative in the Basque country warned on Tuesday that Madrid could suspend the region's autonomous status if its nationalist government continued to defy court orders.

The repeated refusal of the Basque parliament in recent weeks to implement a Supreme Court order to dissolve a party alleged to support the armed separatist group ETA has brought its political relations with Madrid to the brink of collapse.

"If there is uninterrupted defiance then clearly there will come a point when it will be possible to apply the famous constitutional clause allowing the suspension of autonomy," Jaime Mayor Oreja, the head of Spain's ruling Popular Party in the Basque Country, told local radio.

Talk of suspending Basque autonomy for the first time since Spain's 1979 constitution raised an outcry from the region's ruling nationalist coalition.

"This is not a gracious concession from the PP's government which can be installed or eliminated by decree in a manner reminiscent of past times," said Basque government spokesman Josu Jon Imaz, in reference to the 1939-1975 rule of dictator Francisco Franco.

"These are historical rights recognised by the Spanish constitution as predating it," he added.

Spanish prosecutors filed criminal charges against three leaders of the Basque parliament on Friday for "defying authority" by refusing to disband Sozialista Abertzaleak.

The party is the successor to outlawed group Batasuna which the Supreme Court banned in March as the political wing of ETA.

The armed guerrillas, listed as terrorists by the United States and the European Union, have killed some 841 people since 1968 in a bloody campaign for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France.

.... ... .