Vox recovers the proposal to outlaw Bildu in the face of the controversy of the ETA members on lists

Faced with the controversy over the inclusion of those convicted for their relationship with ETA in the municipal lists of the Basque Country and Navarra for the 28-M, Vox has recovered its proposal to outlaw EH Bildu through the application of the Party Law.

Those of Santiago Abascal have registered a petition in Congress this Friday to urge the Government to declare EH Bildu illegal and will force the rest of the parties to position themselves on the illegalization of the abertzale formation, which has five seats in the Lower House and which throughout the legislature has become a fundamental partner for the stability of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez.

Vox bases itself on article 9 of the 2002 Party Law to brand EH Bildu as illegal. This section specifies that a political formation will be “declared illegal” if it regularly includes in its lists or governing bodies “persons convicted of terrorist crimes who have not publicly rejected terrorist means and purposes”.

This, among other points, fully justifies for the party the reasons for placing EH Bildu on the other side of legality, even more so after the Collective of Victims of Terrorism (Covite) numbered 44 candidates for this formation in the Basque Country and Navarra who have previously been sentenced for belonging to or having any relationship with ETA. Seven of them for crimes of blood. “If the inclusion of 44 terrorists in the electoral lists of this party is not enough, nothing will be,” they lament from Vox.

In fact, Vox appeals in its letter to the spirit of unity that led in 2002, with the drafting of the norm, to decree the illegality of the network known as “ETA-Batasuna”, formed by the organizations Herri Batasuna, Euskal Herritarrok and Batasuna, and his expulsion from the institutions in which he was then present. “It is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that ETA tries to evade the application of the law to enter democratic institutions,” they warn in Vox.

The proposal is not new, nor is it the first time that Vox has brought something similar to Congress.. In its framework program, Vox promises to “promote the outlawing of parties, associations or NGOs that pursue the destruction of the territorial unity of the Nation and its sovereignty”, in relation to all nationalist, pro-independence or radical formations. In this section the party puts not only EH Bildu, but also secessionist parties such as ERC, Junts or the CUP, among others.

In September 2020, Vox already demanded in Congress a reform of the Party Law to outlaw separatist parties. The debate, however, hardly had a run since those of Santiago Abascal were left alone in the plenary session in which the debate was addressed. The Popular Party, then led by Pablo Casado and in full conflict with Abascal over the first motion of censure presented by Vox, considered that the appropriate thing to stop these formations was to modify the Constitution.