Spain
Spain: Ban on Basque separatist party extended
By Paul Bond, February 4, 2006
The Spanish High Court has renewed its legal ban on the Basque separatist party Batasuna. The decision prompted a demonstration in the Basque region called in defence of “civil and political rig...
Spain: More military threats against Zapatero government
By Paul Stuart, January 28, 2006
Further military threats have been made against the Socialist Party (PSOE) government in Spain. Following Spanish General Mena’s threat to deploy the military to oppose the passing of a statute ...
Spain: General calls for military intervention over Catalonia
By Paul Stewart, January 16, 2006
On January 7, Lieutenant-General Jose Mena Aguado, the commander of Spain’s 50,000 ground troops, threatened military intervention should the Socialist Party (PSOE) government pass a statute giv...
Spain: Auto unions agree redundancies at SEAT
By Daniel O’Rourke and Paul Mitchell, December 28, 2005
After months of talks and a series of militant strikes, unions at Volkswagen’s Spanish subsidiary have agreed to hundreds of redundancies. Some 686 workers will lose their jobs at SEAT, which em...
Spain’s largest trial targets Basque separatist ETA
By Paul Stuart, December 12, 2005
On November 21, the largest trial in Spanish history began at Madrid’s Casa de Campo. The repressive measures deployed over the last seven years to prepare this trial represent a fundamental ass...
Spain: labour reforms threaten “winter of discontent”
By Keith Lee and Paul Mitchell, November 21, 2005
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) government is pressing ahead with planned labour reforms. The trade unions are seeking to smooth the way for this by ...
Basque separatist leader faces jail for “insulting” the king
By Paul Stuart, November 19, 2005
In a major attack on the right to free speech the Spanish Supreme Court has sentenced Arnaldo Otegi, spokesman for the outlawed Basque party Batasuna and a former deputy, to 12 months in jail for alle...
Spain: refugees killed, survivors abandoned in Moroccan desert
By Paul Stuart, October 22, 2005
For weeks European television news reports have showed images of bloody and battered migrants attempting to scale the militarized fence separating Morocco from the Spanish colonial outposts of Ceuta a...
Spanish court convicts 18 alleged Al Qaeda members
By Vicky Short, October 10, 2005
The largest trial of suspects alleged to be involved in the 9/11 bombings ended in Spain on September 26. A three-judge panel of the Spanish High Court handed down sentences of between 6 and 27 years ...
Young African workers killed in Spanish enclave
By Keith Lee, October 3, 2005
At least six people have died in recent days trying to climb over the six-metre fences surrounding the tiny Spanish town of Ceuta.
Catholic Church steps up campaign to oust Spanish government
By Paul Stuart, September 19, 2005
The Catholic Church is using the network of Catholic family organizations known as Concapa to broaden its campaign to oust the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) government and return the right-wi...
Banned Basque demonstration attacked by police
By Paul Bond, August 25, 2005
Around 20 people were injured when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a demonstration in the Basque city of San Sebastian on Sunday, August 14. The demonstration was called by the Ba...
