Basque separatists of Sortu outlawed

By nine votes to seven, the Spanish Supreme Court has “slammed the door on Sortu”, writes Público. The separatist party was established as a successor to Batasuna, banned because of its links to ETA. The daily notes that the Court considered Sortu to be “under the influence of ETA as well”, while the leftist independence party assures its supporters that it will take part in the municipal elections on 22 May making use of “another option”, which could be the presence of Sortu members on the lists of a nationalist party that is legal. Basque newspaper El Correo for its part considers that Sortu, notwithstanding its “aloofness toward its own past and to ETA,” has behaved in a “measured and limited” manner and should show “more categorical examples of its break with the ETA” to be “democratically credible”. Sortu has 30 days to file an appeal with the Constitutional Court.