The Illegalisation of Basque Political Parties: Sortu’s Case On Monday 7th February 2011 in an event hosted by Lokarri, Basque Citizen Network For Agreement And Consultation, and with the presence of different areas of the
Basque
society’s
representatives, the members of the
Abertzale
Etxeberria
and
Left,
Rufi
Iñigo
Iruin
announced the statutes for the creation of a new political party. In those statutes the Abertzale Left
made
commitment
a to
strategic exclusively
peaceful ways and the accumulation of pro-independence forces. They announced that such party would fully comply with the Political Parties Law. On Tuesday 8th, February 2011, Sortu, the new political party, was publicly presented. The party was defined by its promoters as “a party that seeks independence through purely political and democratic ways, advancing towards the establishment of a Basque state in the framework of the European Union.” They further rejected all violence "categorically and without hesitation...including that of ETA."
They also stated that the project “wants to respond to the new political phase that is opening in Euskal Herria; to the new hopes and aspirations of Basque society, to build a new situation of peace and democratic solution.”
On Wednesday, February 10, morning Sortu presented its statutes in the register of the Ministry of Interior. They were helped by Alex Maskey, Sinn Fein leader, and Bill Bowring, President of the European
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