Batasuna - History and Outline

History and Outline

The party was founded in April 1978 as Herri Batasuna, a coalition of leftist nationalist political groups mostly originating from Euskadiko Ezkerra initially brought together to advocate for "no" in the referendum to be held that year on the Spanish constitution.

Its constituent parties had been called together by senior Basque nationalist Telesforo de Monzón in a 1978 meeting called "the table of Alsasua." Herri Batasuna's founding convention was held in Lekeitio, home of Santiago Brouard who was then the leader of HASI (Herriko Alderdi Sozialista Iraultzailea or Revolutionary Socialist People's Party). The party won 150,000 votes in the Basque Country (15%) and 22,000 additional votes in Navarre (9%) in its first Spanish general election in March 1979. Thus, they won three seats in the Spanish Parliament, which they did not occupy. Same happened in 1980 in the first elections to the Basque Parliament, in which HB standed as second political force, with 151,636 votes (16.55%) winning 11 seats. Its absence allowed a BNP-only Basque Government led by Carlos Garaikoetxea. On November 20, 1984, Brouard was assassinated by two members of the GAL. The killing is perhaps the only one performed by the GAL death squad within Spain itself.

Another well-known Herri Batasuna leader, Josu Muguruza, was also killed by members of the neo-fascist Bases Autónomas in 1989, while he was in a hotel in Madrid. He was a congressman on the Spanish Parliament when he was assassinated.