State Solicitor files contest against Bildu in Supreme Court

The Solicitor General's Office on Wednesday presented a challenge in the Supreme Court to strike all the 254 lists of candidates put forward by Basque abertzale left grouping Bildu from standing in local elections in the northern region on May 22.

In addition to the move against the Bildu platform, the state legal advisor presented a second challenge against 16 groupings of independent candidates put forward by voters' groups in the Basque Country.

The move was set in motion after the government studied police reports that linked Bildu, which was set up when its forebear Sortu was denied legalization, to the outlawed former political wing of ETA, Batasuna.

Using "basically conversations and documents" as evidence, state judicial services concluded that Bildu is "a formal vehicle to present candidates of the abertzale left, who are managed, directed, coordinated and articulated" by the platform. "They are the candidates of the succession of Batasuna-ETA," said the Solicitor General, Joaquín de Fuentes Bardají.

The Supreme Court is expected to convene today to deliberate on the admission of the challenge and to give Bildu a timeframe to respond.