A year and three months after the veto imposed by the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court ordered yesterday afternoon, after a close vote, the inscription of Sortu in the registry of political parties. Now, this formation recovers its legality and closes a decade of prohibition, illegalization and persecution of the Abertzale Left. In this time, the political apartheid applied to a significant part of Basque society has completely altered the composition of the main institutions of the country – the Parliament in Gasteiz continues to be burdened with the consequences of the Law of Political Parties- and continues to outlaw tens of thousands of citizens in the Basque Country, who have been systematically included on police lists. In a few years, when time allows us to look back with a certain perspective at all that has happened in this country, many political agents and institutions won’t be able to avoid blushing when they remember a time in which many people were labeled as “contaminated” and their most basic rights were violated.

 

It has been ten years of outrage, but also of work, struggle and resistance. The strong push by the Spanish state has brought about that a good part of Basque society has given the best of itself. Because every illegalization, every electoral veto has had a response that possibly the inquisitors of the 21^st century didn’t expect. It must be remembered, in this sense, that one hundred thousand people were able to go to a notary public to sign in support so that the Abertzale electoral lists could run in the elections. And, they have done so on more than one occasion. In the same way, the impossibility that happened all of a sudden to thousands of people, among those the top officials of the pro-independence left, of being able to be present in the elections, has made that just as many others took a step forward and filled dozens of candidatures. It hasn’t been, as some have selfishly said, a wandering in the desert, but an opportunity for the Abertzale Left to verify up to what point they are rooted in the social fabric of this country.

 

From resistance to opportunity

 

Precisely, this verification has been what has made possible the transition to a new scenario. Contrary to what some have predicted, the Abertzale Left hasn’t dissolved “like a sugar cube” due to the illegalization and has always maintained an important popular support, in the streets as well as at the ballot box. A backing that three years ago allowed them to open a debate of strategic significance that has culminated in the historic opportunity that this country has today to reach a framework of definitive peace and democracy. Without all of those votes that were annulled, without the enormous effort made to bring to every home the ballots of the electoral lists every time it was needed, without this work of the militancy “Zutik Euskal Herria” [Stand up Basque Country] wouldn’t have existed and the situation in the Basque Country would be very different today.

 

Because they have been able to resist, the Abertzale Left has been able to overcome the phase of resistance. It was from this confidence in their own strengths where they decided to adopt a unilateral strategy that allowed them to overcome the blockage in which the states have so comfortably inhabited. In the past months they have been harvesting the fruits of a commitment that quite a few have rejected just three years ago and now looks to be a winner. The legalization of Sortu, which came just a few days after the Spanish National Court acquitted those accused in the trial against D3M and Askatasuna, is a new milestone on the path where there is still a long way to travel.

 

Towards a scenario of real democracy

 

Because, let no one be deceived, there is still work to be done. The verdict of the Constitutional Court is just the beginning of a process that must conclude with the real democratization of the Basque Country. And it isn’t going to be an easy task; the fact that in a scenario of the definitive cessation of armed activity five magistrates continue defending the illegalization of Sortu; that the Director of Public Prosecutions insisted a few hours before knowing the verdict that the Abertzale formation must continue to be illegal; or that the very Minister of Justice responded to the decision by showing his disagreement, are indicators that too many sectors of the Spanish state maintain the inertia of the past. One also can’t forget that militants whose contributions have been fundamental in opening up this new time remain in prison. Yesterday, the name of Arnaldo Otegi was on everyone’s lips.

 

The Basque Country is far from knowing democracy and this is the objective of those who in 2009 made a strong commitment to this change. This is the reason of being for those who in the last ten years have stood up to the illegalization: to reach a scenario where the will of Basque society is, finally, respected; a future in which the Spanish and French prisons aren’t filled with the sons and daughters of this country. There remains a lot to be done.