Eusko Abertzale Ekintza
Encyclopedia
Basque Nationalist Action is a Basque nationalist party based in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. Founded in 1930, it was the first Basque nationalist political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 to exist running on a socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 program. On 16 September 2008, the party was outlawed by the Spanish Supreme Court based on ties with ETA
ETA
ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...

. The Spanish ruling was appealed to the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...

, which, after reviewing the question, upheld the Spanish courts on the matter.

History

It was formed in 1930, upon the reunification of the Aberri group and the ultraconservative and majority Comunión Nacionalista Vasca in the Basque Nationalist Party
Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque National Party is the largest and oldest Basque nationalist party. It is currently the largest political party in the Basque Autonomous Community also with a minor presence in Navarre and a marginal one in the French Basque Country...

, by those who refused to support the traditional clerical ideology of the party. Its support was restricted to urban middle class and, as such, was a minority party. ANV played a minor role during the Republic, when it usually aligned with left and republican parties (being even part of the Popular Front
Popular Front (Spain)
The Popular Front in Spain's Second Republic was an electoral coalition and pact signed in January 1936 by various left-wing political organisations, instigated by Manuel Azaña for the purpose of contesting that year's election....

 in 1936) and in the Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

. It was a part of the Basque Government in Exile
Basque Government
The Basque Government is the governing body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain. The head of this government is the lehendakari or Basque president that is appointed by the Basque Parliament every four years...

 from 1936 to 1979, and of the Spanish Republican government in Exile
Spanish Republican government in Exile
The Spanish Republican government in exile was a continuation of the government of the Second Spanish Republic, which was established in exile after the victory of Francisco Franco's forces in the Spanish Civil War in April 1939...

 from 1938 until 1946, represented by a minister without portfolio
Minister without Portfolio
A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...

, Tomás Bilbao.

When democracy resumed in Spain, ANV run by itself for the first contemporary Spanish general election
Spanish general election, 1977
The Spanish general election of 1977 took place on 15 June 1977. It was the first election since the death of Francisco Franco.Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. The elections were held using closed list proportional representation in 52 electoral districts...

 presenting candidates in Biscay
Vizcaya (Spanish Congress Electoral District)
Biscay is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It is situated in the Basque Country and the largest city is Bilbao where around 30% of the electorate of almost a million live...

 and Guipuscoa
Guipúzcoa (Spanish Congress Electoral District)
Gipuzkoa is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales...

, achieving a meagre 0.64% of the total votes in the Basque country. During these years, ANV received compensation for the property seized after the war by the Francoist government.

After the 1977 election, ANV chose not to run for elections by itself but run in subsequent elections as a minor part of the electoral platforms of the Basque National Liberation Movement
Basque National Liberation Movement
The Basque National Liberation Movement is an umbrella term that comprises all social, political and armed organizations orbiting around the ideas of the illegal armed organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna , proscribed internationally as a terrorist organisation.The wide variety of organizations and...

. It was not a part of KAS though. Thus, when the Basque independentist party, Batasuna
Batasuna
Batasuna was a Basque nationalist political party based mainly in Spain, where it was outlawed in 2003, after a court ruling declared proven that the party was financing ETA with public money. Batasuna is included in the "European Union list of terrorist persons and organizations" as a component...

, was banned by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2002 after government allegations of its close relationship to ETA, EAE-ANV remained as a legal party.

Rise to prominence

The banning of Batasuna drew attention to the virtually unknown and inactive EAE-ANV as it was informally designated by Batasuna's ranks as the political heir of the illegalized Batasuna.

Consequently, it was during the 2007 municipal and provincial Spanish elections when the new EAE-ANV received intensive media and political attention. Nearly half of its lists
Electoral list
An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election to a post, usually in proportional election systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party or can constitute a group of independent candidates...

 were declared illegal prior to the elections, because a significant portion of the candidates on them had previously run for either Batasuna, EH or HB (different reincarnations of the same base). This despite the fact those parties were legal when these candidates ran for them. The Supreme Court declared that those EAE-ANV lists were providing cover to an illegal party (Batasuna), and, therefore, those list including former Batasuna members were ineligible.

Arguably in order to tamper the court assessment of its candidates, EAE-ANV only disclosed its intentions to run for those elections with the shortest possible legal notice. Thus, the legal assessment declaring some of the lists ineligible was made in a hurry, which also left little time (24 hours) for appeal on the part of the party. Some EAE-ANV members then claimed that a "presumption of guilt" was applied that remained to be properly proven in due time. However, EAE-ANV could take part in the elections with its legal lists, and received a grand total of some 187,000 votes (those votes for lists declared ineligible prior to the elections were declared null). Among the illegal lists were those of Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...

, San Sebastian and Vitoria
Vitoria-Gasteiz
Vitoria-Gasteiz is the capital city of the province of Álava and of the autonomous community of the Basque Country in northern Spain with a population of 235,661 people. It is the second largest Basque city...

; but not those of Pamplona
Pamplona
Pamplona is the historial capital city of Navarre, in Spain, and of the former kingdom of Navarre.The city is famous worldwide for the San Fermín festival, from July 6 to 14, in which the running of the bulls is one of the main attractions...

 city council, where EAE-ANV has two representatives.

Current status

In February 2008, the Spanish government declared EAE-ANV illegal as a precautionary measure to prevent them from taking part in the Spanish general election, 2008
Spanish general election, 2008
Legislative elections for the Spanish Cortes Generales were held on March 9, 2008. The elections were for 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies, and the 208 directly elected seats in the upper house, the Senate, determining the Prime Minister of Spain...

 .. This suspension was later on confirmed by the Spanish Supreme Court declaring EAE-ANV illegal. The case was taken by the defendants to the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...

, which upheld the Spanish court rulings stating that the EAE-ANV candidatures were, in effect, a "fraud" constructed to circumvent the previous outlawing of Batasuna.

Despite the fact that the party was declared illegal, the court ruling was not retroactive, which meant that those elected members of EAE-ANV remained in their positions as city councilors until the next Spanish local election
Spanish local and regional elections, 2011
Local and regional elections were held on 22 May 2011 in Spain. Local elections are held at once across all of Spain, while regional elections were held in 13 of Spain's 17 autonomous communities; Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia, and the Basque Country have different electoral cycles.The days before...

was held in 2011.
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