Thousands of people, including mourners of victims of terrorism, marched with Spanish flags in a rally in Madrid called by the AVT (Victims of Terrorism Association) on Saturday to protest against Basque separatists. Last Saturday, tens of thousands on the other side demonstrated in Spain’s troubled Basque region, calling for the government to legalize a new pro-independence party, Sortu, that says it rejects violence by armed separatist group ETA. The Supreme Court denied Sortu legal status and barred it from running in local elections in May, finding that the party is a repackaged version of ETA’s outlawed political wing Batasuna. Sortu can appeal to the Constitutional Court, but that ruling will likely come after the May 22 elections. The new party, which was unveiled Feb. 7, is the culmination of intense internal debates within ETA-linked pro-independence groups, which concluded that bombs and bullets were no longer an effective way to seek a Basque state independent of Spain and France. ETA declared a cease-fire in September and went further in January by calling it permanent, although it has called 11 truces throughout its 40-year history of violent separatism. The group has killed more than 825 people since the late 1960s and is considered a terrorist organization by Spain, the European Union and the U.S.
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