Thursday, March 28

The General Prosecutor’s Office affirms that EH Bildu is a “democratic” party and it cannot be outlawed


The State Attorney General’s Office affirms that EH Bildu is a “democratic” party and it cannot be outlawed according to the current party law. This is stated in a report that the Public Ministry has made in response to the letter that an association of civil guards sent to the State Attorney General’s Office last Tuesday and in which they requested the banning of the nationalist coalition after the inclusion of former members of ETA in their lists for the 28M elections. The Prosecutor’s Office rules out activating the illegalization procedure claimed by this group and affirms that “the elements of fact and sufficient legal grounds” are not appreciated either to challenge some of their candidacies or exclude their members.

Ayuso contradicts Feijóo and insists that EH Bildu can be made illegal: “ETA is alive”

Further

The report is signed by the chief prosecutor of the Technical Secretariat, Ana García León, and by the prosecutor of the Administrative Litigation section of the Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office, Antonio Narváez. The document concludes that “in view of its activity, the legality of its means and the compatibility of its aims with democratic principles, EH Bildu constitutes a democratic political formation and, therefore, the possibility of requesting the declaration of illegality”.

For this purpose, the prosecutors make a detailed study of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, which has explained in multiple sentences that the condemnation of terrorism can be a factor to take into account but not alone lead to outlawing a political party. They focus especially on the judgment of the guarantee court that, in 2011, endorsed the legality of the coalition and assumed that all its members rejected violence.

In this regard, the prosecutors’ report stresses that EH Bildu is “a coalition of two parties (…) that have publicly condemned and condemn terrorist violence and have accepted and assumed the exercise of political activity within the democratic framework and constitutional”. In addition, they consider it “essential” to remember that ETA dissolved “almost twelve years ago” and that, consequently, the concurrent circumstances must be assessed “from this current perspective.”

They do not consider Article 9 of the Law on Parties to be applicable to this assumption, which states that “a political party will be declared illegal when its activity violates democratic principles, (…) it seeks to deteriorate or destroy the regime of freedoms or make it impossible or eliminate the democratic system, through any of the following conducts, carried out repeatedly and seriously.

And in that same precept, when enumerating these conducts, it expressly includes: “Regularly including in its governing bodies or in its electoral lists people convicted of terrorist crimes who have not publicly rejected the terrorist aims and means, or maintain a large number of its affiliates dual militancy in organizations or entities linked to a terrorist or violent group, unless they have adopted disciplinary measures against them leading to their expulsion.

The ten-page letter also alludes to the request to investigate the inclusion of 44 people convicted of terrorism in the EH Bildu lists for the 28M made by Dignidad y Justicia, a small association of victims of terrorism chaired by Daniel Portero, PP deputy in the Madrid Assembly.

On this issue, the prosecutors affirm that these 44 people have already served their sentences and “there is no record, proven by objective evidence” that “they show any intention of using violence again as an instrument at the service of their political goals and ideals.” And that, therefore, there is “no reason whatsoever” to challenge these candidacies or request the exclusion of some of its members.




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