With a boycott of the March 9 election called by parties barred from participation because of their presumed links to the armed separatist group ETA, abstentionism in Spain’s Basque Country was at 35%âten points higher than the national average. Elections in the three provinces that make up the semi-autonomous Basque region (Ălava, Biscay and GuipĂșzcoa), the Socialist Party for the first time won power, ousting the long-ruling Basque Nationalist Party (PNV)âa “moderate” party which was not among those barred. The March 7 slaying of Isaias Carrasco, a former Socialist town councilor in MondragĂłn (known in Basque as Arrasate) was widely attributed to ETA.
Thousands marched to condemn the attack in Arrasate/MondragĂłn and other towns in the Basque Country. Carrasco’s widow and daughters led the march in MondragĂłn, carrying a banner reading “For freedom, no ETA.” Basque regional premier Juan JosĂ© Ibarretxe also took part in the march, which was supported by most local political partiesâbut not the those recently outlawed.
Nationally, the elections returned Socialist Prime Minister JosĂ© Luis RodrĂguez Zapatero to power. The Socialists also took Catalonia, another semi-autonomous region where separatist sentiment is strong. (AFP, El Universal, Mexico, EiTB24, Bilbao, March 10)
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