Eleanor and Michael, Basque-phobes

Well, fresh from the Outback we get the Basque-phobe of the week.

Eleanor Hall has this nicety to say about the Basques:

The Basques have long been a thorn in the side of Madrid, with terrorist group ETA killing hundreds of Spaniards and local opponents in its fight for an independent state.

Well, she sounds rather informed and fair on her statements isn't it?

But she was not alone, on an article by her outfit called "The World Today", which is a feature at ABC online, she and a Michael Vincent ride the same wave that has been all over the international media saying the Basque dream of independence has been destroyed because get this, Basques voted for EHAK, a pro-independence party, instead of granting majority to Ibarretxe and the PNV.

Huh?

Anyway, Michael Vincent gets quite patronizing when he calls Juan José Ibarretxe by the title senor:

Senor Ibarretxe had hoped to win a majority and force Madrid to help make this region into an internationally recognised state. Instead, he'll now have to negotiate with his Basque political opponents.

Senor Vincent, a "Mr." Ibarretxe was more than enough.

And while we are all weary of China invading Taiwan, Senor Vincent takes the idea of military intervention in Euskal Herria lightly:

Some Spaniards consider the plan sedition, with newspaper editorials in recent days saying Spain risks disintegration. And back in January the National Defence Minister threatened to send in the troops if any region engaged in, quote, "projects which violate the sovereign will of all Spaniards".

Finally, Senor Vincent, an Australian that doesn't understand what democracy is, and can care less about a concept called "assumption of innocence", goes ahead and parrots Aznar's mantra about Batasuna being the political party of an armed group:

MICHAEL VINCENT: But the new force he speaks of is the recently created Communist Party. They were backed in this election by Batasuna, the banned political wing of terrorist group ETA.

Just like that, Michael Vincent arrives to a veredict that not even Madrid has been able to consolidate with something called evidence.

Thanks to their blatant stupidity, Eleanor Hall and Michael Vincent are this week's outstanding Basque-phobes.

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