Bildu is out of the elections

The Spanish Supreme Court has excluded the abertzale (Basque separatist left) coalition Bildu from the municipal and regional elections in the Basque Country and Navarre, on the grounds of its apparent dependency on ETA. As happened only a month ago with the judicial rejection of new party Basque Sortu on the same grounds, the decision once again reveals a division in the Court, in whose hands government and opposition Popular Party (PP) placed this hot potato.

The judges (nine to six) deemed valid the opinion and evidence adduced by the Interior Ministry against the electoral lists of the abertzale coalition, as they previously did with Sortu, to the effect that these lists (254 in total) are directly inspired by the terrorist organization ETA. Though Bildu is not a newly coined formation like Sortu, but rather a coalition of already-legal parties and independent figures, the judges have applied to it the same doctrine. In a way the ruling on Sortu set a precedent for the considerations which on Sunday - after almost 14 hours of debate as the time limits ran out - led the court to make the harshest possible decision.

The ruling may be interpreted as a negative signal to the moderate abertzale left, which has been distancing itself from the armed organization. The message might be summed up in these terms: whatever the abertzale left does, the Spanish courts will always shut them out of participation in democratic elections. Yet it is also obvious that this same left has wasted all the opportunities afforded it in recent years to win credibility by conforming to the demands imposed on Sortu by the courts, and by clearly distancing itself from armed struggle - past, present and future. In any case, this judicial decision once again clearly marks the road to be taken by the abertzale left, whose democratic bill of health will always be compromised as long as ETA persists in its stubborn determination to go on existing.

In the judicial ambit, the ruling is still pending endorsement by the Constitutional Court. If this tribunal concurs with the Supreme Court's majority view, the abertzales will almost certainly bring an appeal before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where the judges may take the Supreme Court's dissenting votes into consideration. In the political ambit, the government has emerged with credit from a complicated situation. Pressured by the PP's radical strategy, the Socialist administration has adopted the most intransigent line by challenging all the abertzale lists: a decision not without some risk, as the division of opinions among the judges has highlighted.

The reaction of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) will be important. Its leader, Iñigo Urkullu, has been extremely hard on the government in recent days, threatening to withdraw the PNV's parliamentary support if Bildu cannot run candidates in the upcoming elections. Sunday's ruling will no doubt have profound repercussions on Basque politics, as the May 22 elections approach.