SODOM & GOMORRAH: A new Basque party is emerging in Spain. Sortu claims to reject the Basque separatist group ETA’s violent methods. ETA has routinely engaged in bombings and shootings in order to promote the formation of an independent Basque state.
Sortu has gone so far as to write its denunciations of violence into its charters, however their platform is identical to that of the ETA: let the Basque people have an independent state.
On February 24, 2011, The Economist calls on Spain to not censure the party, as many political leaders have debated doing. They say that “bringing the political representatives of Basque militancy into the democratic light” is the best method for revealing any flaws in Sortu and to promote a full rejection of the violence practiced by ETA. This can happen only in the ballot box, they say, but I argue that the main battle will be fought in the streets so long as ETA has boxes that hold ammunition.