SPAIN: The banning of the Basque political party Batasuna came a step closer yesterday, with the predictable refusal of the party's spokesman to support a Basque parliamentary motion condemning the latest bombing by ETA. Last Sunday, in the Mediterranean resort of Santa Pola, a no-warning car-bomb killed a six-year-old girl and 57-year-old man.
Mr Antton Morcillo, Batasuna's spokesman in the Basque autonomous parliament, instead presented an alternative motion which described the attack as "a clear demonstration that there is a conflict in the Basque Country". A day earlier, the party's senior public figure, Mr Arnaldo Otegi, said that the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr José María Aznar, "was responsible for what happened [in Santa Pola] and for what may happen in the future".
Such evasive and ambiguous language, shifting the blame for ETA's own actions from the terrorist group to those who oppose it, can be read as evidence that Batasuna is ETA's political wing. Batasuna leaders reject this charge, but it has been widely accepted by most observers of the Basque scene for many years.
Mr Aznar's centre-right government has long wanted to ban this party, and last June passed a controversial new law, with support from the major opposition Socialist Party, which may enable it to so. This law provides for the banning of any party which "directly or tacitly" supports terrorist actions, or "excuses them or minimises their significance".
Sunday's bombing was the first significant ETA action since the passing of the law. On Tuesday, in the absence of any condemnation of the bombing from Batasuna, the government set in train the legal and parliamentary mechanisms which could lead to the banning of the party.
The State Prosecutor's office has been sent a file to prepare a case which would then have to go to a special chamber of the Supreme Court for an initial hearing. It is likely that the new statements from Mr Morcillo and Mr Otegi will now be added to that file.