Patriotic Socialist Union - Attempts To Reorganize

Attempts To Reorganize

In spite of the prohibition of reorganizing under different names in order to circumvent the legal ruling, Batasuna's ranks have tried a series of attempts to reorganize under new names, which include, among others, Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea, Aukera Guztiak, Askatasuna or D3M. All have been legally banned for alleged ties to Batasuna and, in turn, to ETA.

In May 2004, a list named Herritarren Zerrenda ("Citizens' List") was presented in Spain and France to the European Parliament Election, 2004. Spanish tribunals rejected it, as a successor of Batasuna. However, the HZ list in France remained legal.

HZ candidates in Spain then campaigned for using the French HZ ballot in Spain, which was to be counted as a null vote. There were more than 98,000 null votes in the Basque Autonomous Country and more than 15,000 in Navarre. HZ leaders interpreted the high rate of null votes, which was 12% of the total, to mean that most of the nulls were for HZ, since in the previous European elections the null vote was less than 1%.

A more successful strategy for Batasuna proved to be the one of co-opting existing marginal parties giving the shortest possible notice before an election, so that there was no time for the Spanish Supreme Court to legally assess the lawfulness of this move before the election was held. Thus, for the regional Basque parliamentary election, 2005 the so-far marginal EHAK party announced that they were ready to bring the programs of Batasuna to the Basque regional parliament. (EHAK had been legally registered in 2002 but had no known activity until 2005). The party could participate in those elections, but then was declared illegal by a court ruling because of ties with Batasuna, which prevented it from contesting the Spanish regional elections, 2007.

Then, the same strategy was tried by co-opting Acción Nacionalista Vasca a historical, yet basically inactive Basque party. This time, the Spanish Supreme Court could make a quick assessment of ANV's municipal candidates, which resulted in roughly half of them being banned (because the candidates included people who had previously run for the illegal Herri Batasuna or Batasuna) while the other half was ruled lawful and could participate in the elections to be held shortly after the ruling.

Then, in September 2008 the full legal inquiry on the party was finalized, ruling that ANV as a whole was illegal, due to ties with Batasuna-ETA. The Basque regional government, then led by a Basque nationalist coalition of the PNV and EA objected to these legal rulings.

As a result of this pressure, for the first time since Herri Batasuna was formed, neither Batasuna nor its proxies could participate in the Basque regional parliament at the time of the Basque parliamentary election, 2009.

In February 2011, Sortu, a party described as "the new Batasuna", was launched. Unlike predecessor parties, Sortu claimed that it explicitly rejected politically motivated violence, including that of ETA; however it did not condemn the record of ETA nor ask for the disbandment of the armed organization. Sortu was banned in March 2011 from registering as a political party by the Supreme Court of Spain.

Some members went on to form another party called Bildu, which was first banned but then allowed to register. Currently, it is Bildu which represents at the Parliament the electoral base of Batasuna.