Communist Party of the Basque Homelands

"EHAK" redirects here. For the Estonian database of administrative units, see EHAK (Estonia). Political party in Spain

Communist Party of the Basque Homelands Euskera: Euskal Herrialdeetako Alderdi Komunista Spanish: Partido Comunista de las Tierras Vascas

Leader	Juan Carlos Ramos
Founded	27 July 2002
Banned	18 September 2008
Headquarters	Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Basque Country, Spain
Ideology	Communism Independentism Marxism-Leninism Ezker abertzalea Left-wing nationalism
Colors	Red, White
Basque Parliament	7 / 75 (2005)
Website
www.ehak.org
Politics of Spain Political parties Elections

The Communist Party of the Basque Homelands (Basque: Euskal Herrialdeetako Alderdi Komunista, EHAK; Spanish: Partido Comunista de las Tierras Vascas, PCTV) was a communist Basque separatist party in the Basque Country, Spain. The party was outlawed by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2008 after it was judicially proven to be part of Batasuna and, therefore, ETA.

History

EHAK was legally registered for the first time in 2002 but had no known activity until 2005, remaining inactive during these years. In this year, within weeks of the regional Basque election EHAK suddenly rose to national prominence when it publicly announced that it would assume the program of the banned abertzale lists of Aukera Guztiak and Batasuna. EHAK was then widely considered to be a proxy to circumvent the recent ruling which had outlawed Batasuna. Like Batasuna, their representatives refused to explicitly condemn the ETA attacks, being the only important political party not to do so in the Basque Country and Spain. Batasuna representatives asked their supporters to vote for EHAK, which obtained 150,188 votes (12.5%), entering the Basque Parliament with nine seats.

The People's Party requested that the Spanish government conducted investigations to ban EHAK too, though the initially State Legal Service (Abogacía General del Estado) and the Attorney General's Office (Fiscalía General del Estado) found no evidence to support legal actions against the party.

Politics of Basque Country


Statutes of Autonomy 1936 1979 Ibarretxe Plan
President Lehendakari (List) Iñigo Urkullu
Parliament Eusko Legebiltzarra President Bakartxo Tejeria
Judiciary High Tribunal of Justice Ombudsman
Public order Home Office Basque Police - Ertzaintza Municipal police - Udaltzaingoa
Political parties Parliamentary parties PNV, EH Bildu, PSE-EE, PP, UPyD
Former political parties Aralar, Batasuna, EMK, DCV-EKD, EE, EuE, EIA, EA, EAE-ANV, EB-B, HASI, HZ
Elections Recent elections Parliamentary: 2016 2020 2024 Referendums: 1933 1979
Administrative divisions Provinces Gipuzkoa Biscay Álava Comarcas Municipalities
Other countries
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Outlawing

Election poster of EHAK-PCTV with a painted portrait of the communist leader Lenin.

On 18 September 2008, the party was outlawed by the Spanish Supreme Court. According to the legal inquiry, EHAK was "instrumental in continuing the illegal action designed by ETA/Ekin/Batasuna", rapidly losing its autonomy to replace Batasuna's role in the institutional front of ETA's activities. Batasuna got, via EHAK, 837,000 euros corresponding to the public funding given to political parties with parliamentary representation; with no less than 34 Batasuna members (including some of their top officers) were hired by EHAK and paid with this public funding. In the end, according to the judicial inquiry, EHAK followed Batasuna's instructions to the point that there wasn't any difference.

On 4 August 2009, the judge Baltasar Garzón announced his intention to put a number of PCTV members on trial for ETA membership. Among them were two former Basque parliament deputies Karmele Berasategi and Nekane Erauskin; the party president Juan Carlos Ramos and the two party treasurers Jesús María Aguirre and Sonia Jacinto. Several other members, including Basque parliament deputy Maite Aranburu, were forced to testify in front of the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country [es].

References

^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2008). "Basque Country/Spain". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 24 December 2011.
"Elecciones vascas 2005". El Pais. 2009-01-02. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
Yoldi, José (18 July 2009). "El Pais 18 July 2007". El País. Elpais.com. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
Yoldi, José (18 July 2009). "Procesados cinco cargos del PCTV por pertenecer a ETA · ELPAÍS.com". El País. Elpais.com. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
D. Martínez (18 July 2009). "ABC 18 July 2007". Abc.es. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
D. Martínez (18 July 2009). "ABC". Abc.es. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
"El Pais 4 August 2009". El País (in Spanish). Elpais.com. 4 August 2009. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
"Siete parlamentarios de EHAK declaran como testigos por la relación del partido "con ETA-Batasuna"" [Seven EHAK parliamentarians testify as witnesses for the party's relationship "with ETA-Batasuna"]. Europa Press (in Spanish). Europa Press. 2009-02-18. Retrieved 2023-01-23.

External links

(in Spanish) EHAK Official web page

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