Status in France
Batasuna has a minor presence in the Basque French country, where it runs elections as a civic organization, not like a political party. In France it used to get a few hundred votes and did not reach any kind of representation at either local or regional level so far.
In September 2008, 14 people were detained by the French police, 10 of whom were from the French-wing of the party (including their spokesman Xabi Larralde), and charged with links to ETA. They were released four days later; it remained unclear whether the ongoing investigation would lead to an illegalization process similar to that in Spain.
In January 2013, Batasuna in France announced its self-dissolution, citing a process of "political reflection".
Read more about this topic: Patriotic Socialist Union
Famous quotes containing the words status and/or france:
“What is clear is that Christianity directed increased attention to childhood. For the first time in history it seemed important to decide what the moral status of children was. In the midst of this sometimes excessive concern, a new sympathy for children was promoted. Sometimes this meant criticizing adults. . . . So far as parents were put on the defensive in this way, the beginning of the Christian era marks a revolution in the child’s status.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“But as some silly young men returning from France affect a broken English, to be thought perfect in the French language; so his Lordship, I think, to seem a perfect understander of the unintelligible language of the Schoolmen, pretends an ignorance of his mother-tongue. He talks here of command and counsel as if he were no Englishman, nor knew any difference between their significations.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)