SPAIN: Spain is right in its attempt to ban the Basque political party, Batasuna, argues Enrique Pastor de Gana
Banning a political party is a very serious decision, requiring thorough reflection and a broad social and political consensus. We Spaniards, deprived of democracy for so long, are well aware of this fact; so much so that our constitution defines political pluralism as one of its fundamental values, alongside freedom, justice and equality.
In Spain there are several regional pro-independence political parties, as well as anti-monarchic parties, legally established and running regularly in elections; they are minority options, but legitimate nonetheless.
The beginning of the process to ban Batasuna has nothing to do with its ideology; it is founded on the conviction that this political party is a part of the political and social web led by the terrorist organisation ETA, providing it not only with the trappings of legitimacy, but also with logistical and operational support. The funds received by the party enter a sort of common account allowing ETA to sustain a strategy of harassment against those who dare to disagree.
ETA and Batasuna, as well as other organisations, have declared their aim of "socialising suffering", to maintain the fiction of an open and long-standing conflict between Basque citizens and Spain.
The reality is quite different; the Basque Country enjoys a degree of autonomy and self-government not found anywhere else in Europe, including raising and managing taxes and responsibility in the fields of education, culture and health. The regional government even has an autonomous police force, that answers directly to it.
ETA and its web aim to break this model and establish instead a Marxist and totalitarian State, in which discrepancies would not be accepted. To do this, they have begun a mafia-like campaign of intimidation against all those who think differently, politicians as well as journalists and intellectuals. The Basque Country is today the only place in Europe where political ideas cannot be freely expressed, for fear of reprisals, including the loss of life.
Batasuna plays an essential role in this tactic, organising street riots, maintaining social control to prevent public reaction, and cynically justifying terrorist attacks, like the one that earlier this month cost the lives of a six-year-old girl and a man standing at a bus stop.
The Spanish parliament will propose on Monday that the Supreme Court ban Batasuna, through a process that will benefit from all the legal warranties of a democratic system, and in which Batasuna's lawyers will be able to argue their case.
If finally, as the vast majority of democrats expect, the court decides to ban Batasuna, the Basque Country will have taken an important step in favour of the defence of all ideas, albeit by means of democratic procedures, not by intimidation, coercion and murder.
Enrique Pastor de Gana is Spain's ambassador to Ireland