SPAIN: The Spanish government has asked the Supreme Court to ban the radical Basque nationalist party Batasuna, with the prosecutor-general characterising the political wing of the armed Basque separatist group, ETA, as "Nazis".
"[We will] liberate this part of Spain [the Basque Country] from the harassment of Nazis from a party called Batasuna," Mr Jesus Cardenal told reporters outside the Supreme Court in Madrid after handing in the petition.
"We are going to demonstrate that Batasuna is part of a terrorist network and that the Batasuna leaders either are or have been leaders of ETA, or in any case members," the Interior Minister, Mr Angel Acebes, said.
If the ban is approved by the Supreme Court, it will be the first time a political party has been outlawed in Spain since the four-decade dictatorship of Gen Francisco Franco ended in 1975.
The Justice Minister, Mr Jose Maria Michavila, told a news conference the government - which is renewing its campaign to have Batasuna included on a European Union blacklist of terrorist groups - wanted to "end impunity for people who use democracy to undermine democracy".
Last week a senior anti-terrorist judge, Mr Baltasar Garzon, ordered the suspension of all Batasuna's political activities for three years and the closure of its offices. He is also seeking the closure of Batasuna's offices in France, Belgium and Nicaragua.
The government said its three-pronged petition to ban Batasuna contained some 1,000 pieces of evidence against the party, which regularly obtains between 10 and 20 per cent of the vote in Basque regional elections.
First, Madrid hopes to convince the Supreme Court that Batasuna and its predecessors, Herri Batasuna (HB) and Euskal Herritarrok (EH), "are a single legal-political network . . . whose aim is to provide political support for the action of the terrorist organisation ETA".
Second, it argues that Batasuna has used its political privileges to support "terrorism", for example, by allowing ETA members to appear on its electoral lists.
Lastly, it says Batasuna has breached a tough law on political parties passed in June which bans both tacit and active support for terrorism.
The crackdown on Batasuna has widespread support in the rest of Spain but has aroused much anger in the Basque region and neighbouring Navarra, where many Basques live.