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Spain’s High Court says Basque consultation law unconstitutional

Udalbiltza - 2008/09/12

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Basques to take popular consultation fight to EU court.

Ibarretxe called on the Basques and its political parties to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to take Spain to task over a court decision that bars a non-binding popular consultation in the Basque Country.

Basque Country’s PM said on Friday he respects a court ruling that bars a popular consultation on how to find a solution to Basque conflict but he likened it to stifling people's right to express an opinion.

We face an unprecedented situation in 21st-century Europe, where consulting with society is common, Juan Jose Ibarretxe said, reading from a statement.

This is an extraordinary snub to the Basque parliament and its powers, and is also, politically and socially, an abuse of democracy, Basque Country Premier Juan Jose Ibarretxe told reporters.

He called on the Basque people and its political parties to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to take Spain to task over the court decision.

Ibarretxe, a Basque nationalist, was the driving force behind the non-binding popular consultation he had called for Oct. 25. The consultation was to put two questions to voters: do they support negotiations with the armed Basque group ETA, if it ends violence, and do they think Basque political parties should work toward an agreement on the right of the Basque people to decide their own future.

The Spanish government appealed to the Constitutional Court shortly after the Basque parliament approved the consultation blueprint in July.

The Madrid government had described the vote as a veiled push for outright independence.

Ibarretxe has called the vote a consultation rather than a referendum, and insisted it was not unconstitutional because it was not binding. But Spain's Constitutional Court, the country's highest tribunal, ruled unanimously Thursday night that he cannot go ahead with it. The court said only Spain's central government can convene referendums.

Ibarretxe said the court was acting for political reasons disguised in a legal veneer. He called the ruling something deeper than an attack on Basque self-government, because in reality what we are facing is the inability to express an opinion.





Source: eitb24.com