Basque Leader Calls Early Balloting
The president of Spain’s Basque region called early elections for May 13, setting the stage for a fierce political fight over how to end decades of violence by the separatist group ETA.
Juan Jose Ibarretxe, whose mainstream Basque Nationalist Party, or PNV, governs with a minority in the regional parliament, made the announcement.
Many Basques see the vote as a referendum on the Spanish government’s hard-line anti-ETA policy versus the PNV’s call for broad-based talks to resolve a three-decade-long conflict that has claimed about 800 lives.
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