PP calls for Bildu's entire slate to be vetted

The opposition Popular Party wants the government to challenge all of the names on the slate of Bildu, an alliance of radical abertzale leftists and legal parties, to prevent banned candidates from presenting themselves at municipal elections to be held in the Basque Country next month.

PP sources said Tuesday that the party's spokesman for justice and home affairs, Federico Trillo, has been in constant contact with Interior Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba to arrive at a formula that would prevent candidates sympathetic to the Basque terrorist group ETA from running. It is expected that Congress will today authorize the Attorney General's office to act against the 258 candidacies put forward by Bildu.

Bildu includes members of Sortu, which was barred from registering as a party by the Supreme Court several weeks ago on indications it would form ETA's new political wing. Bildu was set up in response to the ban on Sortu.

Although the government has not yet received all the reports on Bildu being drawn up by security forces there is sufficient documentation to suggest that Batasuna, the outlawed former political wing of ETA, is behind Bildu.

According to the government, Bildu plans to field "independent" candidates without arrests or links to other abertzale parties but who will be easily recognized by voters in the Basque Country.

Socialist Party secretary Marcelino Iglesias said he was confident the courts would prevent Bildu from standing in elections "until sufficient time has passed to demonstrate that its rejection of violence is sincere and not a cosmetic position."