BASQUE REFRENDUM BILL APPROVED

BASQUE REFRENDUM BILL APPROVED

The Basque Government has voted in favour of a referendum bill introduced by Basque President Juan José Ibarretxe last month.

A majority of just one was enough to give the President the power to hold the first part of a referendum on 25th October 2008. The referendumwill ask two questions, the first of which will ask if people arein favour of a "negotiated solution' to the ETA 'conflict' if the armed group end its violence.

The second question, which will be put to a second referendum asks if all Basque political parties should work toward an agreement on what it calls the Basques 'right to decidetheir future'.The Bill was passed by 34 votes to 33, with 7 abstentions and one non attendance. The one vote deciding vote came from the Basque CommunistParty (Euskal Herrialdeetako Alderdi Komunista - EHAK). The EHAK decidedlast week to give their limited support to the bill, despite having been given the cold shoulder by Ibarretxe earlier on in the year when their party was looking at a possible ban by the Spanish state.
However, the referendum bill has not been without its critics. Insidethe Basque socialist/nationalist movement the bill has been criticized,among other things, for not going far enough, being too complicatedand only applying to the three out of the historical seven provinces the Basque Country - Biscay, Alava, and Gipuzkoa. Labourd, Lower Navarre,Soule (in the state of France) and Navarre (now an autonomous region in the state of Spain), will not be included in the referendum vote.The bill has also been heavily criticised by Basque socialist party(PSE-EE) and the Popular Party (PP). The PSE-EE has said repeatedlythat if the bill was passed by the Basque Government, they would seek a court order to prevent the referendum going ahead on the argument that the bill is unconstitutional. Ibarretxe has said in the past that he wants a future Basque country 'freely associated' with Spain,with its own separate legal system and European Union representation.In 2005 the Spanish Foreign Policy Minister said that this could not happen under an EU Constitution – perhaps one of the reasons why the Spanish Government are still so eager to push forward the Lisbon Treaty today, despite the Irish NO vote.President Juan José Ibarretxe's blog: http://www.ibarretxe.com/bitacora

BASQUE PEOPLE WE SAY UNITE AND GO FOR INDEPENDENCE ! BE BRAVE AS SCOTLAND WILL AGAINST THE BASTARD ENGLISH IN 2010 !

Farewell to the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom - The Political map of Europe faces changes

Farewell to the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom - The Political map of Europe faces changes

Basque Country - independence referendum likely

A Basque Government referendum Bill was placed before the Basque

Government on 29th May, 2008, that could be the first step towards the

Basque Country voting for independence from the Spanish state in 2010.

In a move that marks the beginning of what could possibly be the firstof several referendums on

independence over the coming years in WesternEurope, including one in Scotland, the Basque

Prime Minister, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, presented the Bill to the Basque Parliament

PresidentIzaskun Bilbao. The formal presentation took place before the BasqueParliament in

Gasteiz/Vitoria and the wording of the Bill is planned to be debated in the Parliament on 27th

June 2008 and no corrections will be allowed.

If agreed, the Bill will be put to popular vote on October 25th 2008 and Ibarretxe has stated that

he expects the BasqueParliament to give the Bill their total support. However, the Spanish

Socialist Government in Madrid, headed by Spain'sPrime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez

Zapatero, has said that it willseek a court order to prevent the vote going ahead if the Bill

isapproved on 27th June. Ibarretxe's decision to propose the Bill comesafter negotiations

between Zapatero and Ibarretxe broke down overthe last couple of weeks, with Ibarretxe

stating that the Spanish PM did not want to negotiate with the Basque institutions. Ibarretxe

said in a statement:"We want to have the right to decide and the right to live together in peace."

Referendums on independence are also planned for Scotland in 2010and in Catalunya on 2014.The

political map of Europe has seen much change in recent years with the break up of

Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic,the crumbling of the former

Yugoslavia into smaller states including Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and so on and the newly

emergent nations following the collapseof the Soviet Union. Many might view this process with

sadness but former countries which were combined have go on to prove themselves very able to

manage their own affairs as in the case of Sweden and Norway which were united until 1905.

These nations have never looked back so bringing a sense of inevitability to the process and an

ever closer step to a 'Europe of 100 nations' forseen in an early European Union document.

And we at the Celtic Warrior say - Vote 'yes' for freedom from the Imperialist and Colonialist States wherever they be !