In a democracy, the banning of a political party is never an uncontroversial event, particularly in a country with relatively recent experience of non-democratic rule. The fact that eighty eight percent of Spain’s MPs nevertheless decided to request the banning of Batasuna on August 26 reveals the seriousness of the political crisis afflicting the Basque country, and above all the determination of Prime Minister José María Aznar’s government to put an end to decades of impunity.
Predictably, the measure has been criticised on both legal and political grounds, but events since the banning suggest that the government’s decision was not as misguided as some had feared.
