SPANISH COURT’S NARROW VERDICT | SORTU BARRED FROM MAY LOCAL ELECTIONS

Banning of Basque party ‘backward step’

Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey (centre left) at a press conference with Sortu’s Inaki Zabaleta

THE Spanish Supreme Court’s decision in a vote of 9-7 to bar new Basque pro-independence party Sortu from contesting May’s local elections has been criticised by Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey as a backward step and a denial of fundamental democracy.
Sortu has publicly declared that it rejects all political violence but the Supreme Court voted by a narrow majority to accept the Spanish Government’s case that Sortu is a repackaged version of the outlawed party Batasuna and does not really reject violence.
Sortu can appeal the decision to the Constitutional Court, the highest court in Spain, but if the ruling does not come before the April 18th election deadline then Sortu won’t be able to stand in the vote on May 22nd.