PSOE: No Reform

Today at Berria.info:

PSOE won’t be backing reform to penalise holding of referendum

Rodriguez Zapatero has declared that “legal absurdities” are not the way to oppose “an illegal plan”

Agencies – MADRID

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, General Secretary of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party), was deeply critical of the reform announced by the Spanish Government to punish the holding of unauthorised referendums. Rodriguez Zapatero accused the Spanish Government of “irresponsibility”, “a lack of loyalty” and “legal absurdity.” Zapatero declared that this was why the PSOE would not be supporting the amendments of the PP (ruling Spanish Popular Party) in the Senate or upper house of parliament. He spoke of the decision taken by the Cabinet during a conference on State and Democracy organised by the PSOE.

Rodriguez Zapatero made it clear that he opposed Ibarretxe’s plan but admitted that this time he felt compelled to criticise the Spanish Government, because it had acted “irresponsibly, without loyalty and in a hurry.” He said that even though Ibarretxe’s plan was “illegal”, it should not be opposed “by means of a legal absurdity.” Moreover, “you don’t deal with irresponsibility with yet more irresponsibility,” added the PSOE’s General Secretary. He accused Aznar’s government of having “neglected the formalities.” Rodriguez Zapatero deplored the fact that this had been done “without prior notice and in the absence of dialogue and consultation.”

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Referendum Means Prison

Today at Berria:

Madrid aims to make calling a referendum punishable by prison

The modification of the Criminal Code is expected to establish prison sentences of between three and five years “for those people in authority or civil servants who organise or allow the consulting of the people through a referendum”

Editorial Staff – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

The Spanish Government announced yesterday that it would be promoting a modification of the Criminal code to make people in authority who consult the people through a referendum without having the power to do so liable to prison sentences. The people in authority or civil servants who organise such popular votes could face prison terms of between three and five years. Likewise, other people in authority who promote and support the consulting of the people could also be liable to terms “of between one and three years”, and this could also affect citizens, the inspectors for example, who participate in the carrying out and supporting of this “illegal” process.

The Spanish Government’s aim is to invalidate and hinder the tool of consulting the people. And they are in a hurry, as well. Jose Maria Michavila, the Justice Minister, said yesterday that the change could have approval by December 18 or 23. They are going to add two articles to the Criminal Code: Article 506a affecting people in authority and civil servants will be included in the section dealing with the Usurping of Powers; and Article 521a, which establishes the punishing of citizens under the section entitled Crimes Committed when Fulfilling Basic Public Rights and Liberties. One of the passages of the text the Spanish Government wants to add runs: “The people in authority and civil servants who organise or allow elections of a general, autonomous community, or local nature, or plebiscites by means of referendums, when it is clear that they do not have the powers to do so, are liable to prison terms of between three and five years and will remain totally disqualified from office for an additional three to five years after the prison term, in other words for between six and ten years.”

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Basque Country, CIA and FBI

Today at Berria:

Basque Country politics was subject of detailed investigation by CIA and FBI

Salegi and Egana have selected a number of documents declassified by the United States and produced them in book form

Eider Goenaga – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

The United States secret services, the FBI and the CIA, have thoroughly investigated aspects of political activity in the Basque Country. This is clear in the book “Expediente Vasco. CIA y FBI en Euskal Herria” (The Basque Files. The CIA and FBI in the Basque Country) brought out by the Txalaparta publishing house. Mario Salegi and Inaki Egana are responsible for compiling and classifying the documents for the book and it was they who presented the book yesterday.

The book describes the work conducted by the secret services in the Basque Country starting from the relations the EAJ (Basque Nationalist Party) and the Basque Government in exile [after the end of the Spanish Civil War] had with the United States; the book includes documents made by the United States intelligence services on Basque political activity up until 1980. Manuel de Dios, the American journalist of Basque origin, began the work which remained unfinished when he was killed in 1992, and Salegi wanted to continue the work with Egana’s help. It can be seen from the 50 or so documents the two of them have selected that the FBI and CIA knew exactly what was going on in the Basque Country.

The book reflects the events between 1955 and 1980 in the words of the American agents: the birth of ETA [armed pro-Basque independence organisation], internal documents and attacks, the Christian Democrat International organised by Agirre [the President of the Basque Government in exile], the Carlist movement, the Montejurra assassinations, the Law of Amnesty, mobilisations in favour of the prisoners, pre-autonomy plan, elections, referendums on the Spanish Constitution and Statute for the Basque Autonomous Community, tensions within the EAJ and the monitoring of all the political parties: EAJ, UDC, AP, HB, PCE, PSOE-PSE... .As already mentioned, the documents declassified by the United States only go up to 1980.

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Asier Huegun Back Home

Today at Berria:

Full of emotion but disinclined to say much at Hondarribia airport

At around 13.45 hours Asier Huegun and his parents landed at Hondarribia, where close relatives and friends awaited them

Amagoia Iban – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

Early yesterday afternoon Hondarribia airport was full of reporters waiting for Asier Huegun. By then they knew he had arrived at the Spanish capital from Bogota at around 10.30 hours and by 12.40 would have boarded the plane bound for the Basque Country. “He’s due in at around two o’clock,” said everyone and the plane carrying the young man from Donostia touched down at 13.45 hours.

He was one of the last off the plane. He emerged together with his parents, Amaia and Joxemari, and the Jesuit, Javier Arellako. He was wearing jeans, a green T-shirt and a blue sweater. At the bottom of the stairs from the plane two people stood waiting for him including a sister. When Asier Huegun saw them, he punched the air with his fists. When he came down the steps he gave his sister a fierce hug. His mother, Amaia Etxeberria, was in tears. More close friends and relatives were waiting for the young man from Donostia outside the terminal building on the edge of the runway. After waving to them he went inside the terminal to collect his luggage. When he had done so, the Arrivals door opened. On the other side flashes, microphones, cameras and recorders were there to catch the words of the young man, who emerged with a full beard. He said a few words to confirm that he was “fine healthwise” and “mentally, too” was feeling “great”. He said his family seemed to be “very well”. And he thanked “all the people” who had offered him their help and solidarity. “I’ll be giving a press conference tomorrow and I would be grateful if you would please respect that and leave both me and my family alone until tomorrow. We’ll all talk tomorrow. I’m fine, feeling great.” After making these declarations Huegun left the throng of reporters behind him.

Reinhilt Weigel, the young German woman, also travelled home yesterday. The plane taking her from Bogota landed at Frankfurt airport. An airport spokesperson said the frontier police had collected her. They drove the only woman who had been held by the ELN (Colombian National Liberation Army) in the Sierra Nevada since September 12 to the town of Ganderkesee, where her parents live.

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Sanz Against the Ikurriña

Today at Berria:

Sanz wants mayors who fly Basque flag barred from office

The Government of Navarre will resort to the courts to ensure that town councils abide by the Law of Symbols

Editorial Staff – IRUNEA (Pamplona)

In an interview given yesterday on TVE1, the Spanish TV channel, the Navarrese President, Miguel Sanz, said he was planning to take action against the town councils that did not abide by the Law of Symbols; the aim is to penalise the councils who fly the “Ikurrina” or red, white and green Basque flag, and he will be asking the Navarre Government to have the mayors concerned barred from office.

To this end Sanz announced that they would be filing appeals and that it would be the courts which would compel the town council to remove the “Ikurrina”. He said: “We are going to resort to the courts so that they deliver a judgement and if the town council decides not to take any notice, we will be able to bar the mayor from office.” The Law of Symbols prohibits the flying of any flag which is neither the town’s one, the Spanish one nor the European one next to the flag of Navarre. “In fact the flag of the Basque citizens of Navarre is the flag of Navarre; and the “Ikurrina” is the flag of the Basque citizens of Gipuzkoa, Araba and Bizkaia,” as Sanz pointed out yesterday. Indeed, the preamble to the Law of Symbols passed in April makes it clear what this law is designed to achieve: “Previous legislation does not include the necessary legal tools to enable public powers to correct common irregularities effectively . Many town halls fly the flag of the Basque Autonomous Community [of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa], either alone or alongside other flags, when it is clear that Navarre is not a part of that autonomous community. This can lead to confusion with respect to the institutional sphere of the Charter Community of Navarre.”

The EAJ (Basque Nationalist Party), EA (Eusko Alkartasuna-Basque Solidarity Party) and Batasuna (left-wing Basque nationalist party) lost no time responding to the Navarrese Government’s announcement. Fermin Ziaurriz of the Navarrese wing of EA declared that this was “yet another example of the petty tyranny of Sanz’s Government and a further consequence of its inquisitorial behaviour.” EA claimed that the citizens of Navarre were “entitled to express their feelings”.

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Huegun is Free

Today at Berria:

Huegun: “I’m fine, extremely happy, I wanted to speak to my family”

Moments after his release by the ELN San Sebastian-born Asier Huegun emerged tired and thin, but well

Jakes Goikoetxea, Special Correspondent, Valledupar (Colombia)

Donostia (San Sebastian)-born Asier Huegun touched down at the Alfonso Lopez airport of Valledupar (in northern Colombia in the south-west of the Sierra Nevada mountains) at around 12.30 hours (20.30 hours Basque Country time). He had been taken hostage by the ELN (Colombian National Liberation Army) on September 12 along with another seven tourists in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and was released yesterday along with aGerman woman, Reinhilt Weigel. Asier Huegun was wearing a red T-shirt and green trousers. The moment the helicopter landed he started speaking on his mobile phone as he walked up and down beside the aircraft. Weigel did the same. All the people who had participated in their release waited outside the helicopter while it was being refuelled. At 13.00 hours Huegun put some things in his rucksack and got back into the helicopter half an hour after touching down at Valledupar. The aircraft then headed for Bogota military airport where the released hostages’ relatives and the Spanish and German ambassadors were waiting for them.

Asier Huegun and Reinhilt Weigel did not go near the airport building. According to the Efe news agency Huegun had told the people who had gone to meet them: “I’m fine, extremely happy, I just wanted to speak to my family.” In the evening Spanish public TV broadcast some of the declarations Asier Huegun made during that moment. “The first few days were very hard as we didn’t know who we were with, no one told us anything. (…) They told me the date of my release a month ago and I was all the time just waiting and waiting not knowing, thinking that maybe the next day would be the day of my release, some days were really hard.” Hector Fabio Henao, director of the Colombian Pastoral Social Services, and Dario Echeverri, the general secretary of the National Conciliation Committee, who collected the two hostages, also spoke to reporters. Echeverri said at the airport, “Huegun and Weigel are very happy and very well, both physically and mentally”.

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Language of Sound

Today at Berria:

A whole world in the language of sound

Players from Portugal, France and Ireland and many generations from different parts of the Basque Country performed at the 2nd International Diatonic Accordion Festival in Donostia yesterday. There was a wonderful atmosphere in the Kursaal concert hall, which was full to bursting

Ainara Gorostitzu – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

The diatonic accordion (the “Trikiti” in Basque) is international. That playful little instrument originated in Italy and Germany, spread to Ireland and Portugal and came to us like butterflies. It is the voice of international language and a fitting festival was held in the Kursaal Concert Hall of Donostia (San Sebastian) yesterday. Kike Amonarriz, accompanied by Joxepa Madariaga, did the presentation and said, “We wanted to bring the world to the Kursaal. This is because we are citizens of the world and because we find it easy to appreciate what a Portuguese, a French person or an Irish person feels when he or she hears this little sound.” By welcoming the whole world the small concert hall was bursting at the seams. A welcome for the little diatonic accordion, the “Trikiti”, also known as the bellows of hell.

The Astiasaran brothers, Epelarre and Etxeberritxo played mischievously alongside Juan Mari Beltran’s clarinet-like “dultzaina”. The tambourine players competed with each other to the rhythm of the sound to the delight of the audience. One with a blue rinse, the other bald, they played and played together like fighting rams with one of the Astiasarans hitting out with his head, feet and arms and Etxeberritxo responding with his elbows and playing with both his right and left hands. They teased each other and conspired with the audience. One tambourine player would start, the other would respond, they played in a dialogue, in a conversation, in an argument. The audience clapped and enjoyed their dancing and twirling around. Some of the people had to sit on the stairs, because the auditorium was full.

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PSOE to Ask EU to Ban Plan

Today at Berria:

Spanish Socialist Party to ask EU to issue declaration against plan

Zapatero says the proposal of Ibarretxe, the President of the Basque Autonomous Community, “signifies a break with the European Union”

Editorial Staff – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the General Secretary of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party), said yesterday that he would be asking the Spanish Government and the governments of the other states of Europe to issue a formal declaration acknowledging that “the territories that break the current legal framework and take the initiative to go their own way are breaking with the European Union.” Zapatero made this request after condemning the proposal for a political statute of the Government of the BAC [Basque Autonomous Community of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa]. After making this request he suggested that the European Union should issue a declaration against the proposal.

When giving the reasons for the request he said that if the proposal were implemented, “the consequences would not only be for the Basque Autonomous Community, but also for Europe.” In the PSOE federal committee meeting yesterday Zapatero vehemently attacked Ibarretxe’s plan. He accused Juan Jose Ibarretxe, the Lehendakari or President of the BAC Government, of “wanting to cover up the fact that the Basque Autonomous Community would end up outside Europe if it broke the framework of Spain.” Afterwards he again called for a declaration that he regarded as necessary by the states and governments of Europe “against a political reality that is becoming clear”. Zapatero admitted that he fully agreed with the PP [the ruling Spanish Popular Party] in opposing Ibarretxe’s proposal, and that this guaranteed that the plan would have no chance whatsoever of becoming reality. Addressing Ibarretxe he recalled that the PSOE would never participate in the debate on the plan, “and the chance of this is even more remote while the violence of ETA [the armed, pro-Basque independence organisation] is going on.” On hearing the message Eduardo Zaplana, the Spanish Government spokesman, congratulated Zapatero, and said that he hoped that it would be an “errand” for Pasquall Maragall, the General Secretary of the PSC [the PSOE’s Catalan wing].

How sad can this be, an allegedly socialist politician siding with the backwards Spanish extreme right against the will and the right of an entire people to its self-determination.

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Beyond Bounds of the Law

Today at Berria:

Madrid says “debate would go beyond the bounds of the law”

The appeal presented yesterday by the Spanish Government states that the Basque Autonomous Community Government has “deliberately” contravened the Constitution; and the Basque Autonomous Community Parliamentary Presiding Committee is aware of this and yet has broken the law by allowing the proposal to proceed

Eider Goenaga – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

In order to file an appeal with the Constitutional Court the Spanish Government has argued that the Government of the BAC (Basque Autonomous Community of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa) has committed a “flagrant violation” of the Spanish Constitution by approving the proposal for a Political Statute (1). Consequently, it has stressed the fact that the debate opened on the proposal would go “beyond the bounds of the law.” Jose Maria Michavila, the Spanish Justice Minister, declared: “It is the response democracy is giving to a totalitarian plan.” The Spanish Government has asked the Court to regard as unconstitutional, annul and suspend the decisions adopted by the BAC Government and Parliament to get to proposal approved.

As announced, the State Lawyer representing the Spanish Government lodged the appeal against the Statute Proposal with the Constitutional Court yesterday. The Spanish Government is challenging two decisions in a single appeal: on the one hand the decision by the BAC Government to approve the statute proposal and refer it to the BAC Parliament and, on the other hand, the decision by the BAC Parliamentary Presiding Committee to allow the proposal to proceed. “Our aim is in no way to prohibit debate,” explained Michavila in a press conference relating to the appeal. “But Ibarretxe’s plan (1) unilaterally and deliberately breaks democratic rules and it is completely totalitarian, not only in its contents and in the two steps to allow it to proceed, but also with respect to its chosen bedfellows,” he added making a reference to “Sozialista Abertzaleak” (the parliamentary group of members of Batasuna, the outlawed left-wing Basque nationalist political party).

(1) “Proposal for a Political Statute of the Basque Autonomous Community” presented to the BAC Parliament on 26-09-03. Also referred to as the Plan of Ibarretxe, the current Lehendakari or President of the BAC Government. It describes itself as a new model of relationship with the Spanish State based on free association.

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Follow the Rabbit!

My brother Aerik sent me this, go check it out!

The Meatrix

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