Rubalcaba moves to prevent Basque bodyguard ban

Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba on Tuesday promised a swift and forceful legal response to the stand-off between Bildu-controlled town halls in the Basque Country and the bodyguards that have traditionally accompanied elected deputies in the region to their places of work. In the Guipúzcoa parish of Andoain on Monday, Bildu banned bodyguards from entering public buildings.

Rubalcaba stated that the reform would be adopted "with all speed" and carried out by reforms to local government regulations. The matter is already in the hands of the Solicitor General's Office, which was on Tuesday evening frantically searching for a fast-track solution should councils run by Bildu, the pro-independence coalition that had great success in May elections, persist in the bodyguard prohibition.

Rubalcaba said that only the Andoain case had so far come to light and that Basque interior chief Rodolfo Ares would be in touch with the mayor of the town, Ana Carrere, who issued the barring order.

Judicial sources said it would be "difficult" to enforce a reversal of the ban. "We can tell them, but we cannot oblige them." The Solicitor General's Office expects to have a proposal to solve the matter ready on Wednesday.