- Aralar Party
Aralar is a Basque socialist and separatist
political party inSpain . The party is led by Patxi Zabaleta. It is opposed to the violent struggle ofETA .Aralar was born in the 1990s from a critical tendency within
Herri Batasuna (HB) andEuskal Herritarrok (EH), led byPatxi Zabaleta . The tendency had its main base inNavarre .The breaking of ETA's truce in 2000 provoked Herri Batasuna's reformation into
Batasuna , to have presence in allEuskal Herria . Following disagreements over the internal organization of Batasuna, Aralar broke away to form a separate political party.In the May 2003 election for the Navarre Assembly, Aralar obtained 24,068 votes (8.02% of the valid votes) and four seats and in the same community obtained 4.76% of the valid votes in the municipal elections and 18 local councillors. In the
Basque Autonomous Community it obtained 30 councillors and 1.51 % of the valid votes.Aralar contested the
Spanish general election, 2004 in coalition withZutik but failed to win any seats, polling 3.09% of the valid votes. The party contested Navarre as part of the coalitionNafarroa Bai (NaBai), together withEusko Alkartasuna (EA),Batzarre theBasque Nationalist Party (PNV) and independents, obtaining a seat for the independentUxue Barkos and 18.04 % of the whole of valid votes, which was the highest percentage and number of votes for a Basque list in Spanish General Elections in Navarre.In 2004 the youth wing of Aralar, [http://www.iratzarri.org Iratzarri] , was founded.
In the Basque elections of
April 17 , 2005, Aralar entered theBasque Parliament with one seat and 2.33% of votes. This seat is held byAintzane Ezenarro .In 2007 Aralar won 56 local council seats and 4 local Assembly seats in
Euskadi and 5 local Assembly seats and 30 council seats inNavarre .Aralar contested the 2008 General Elections in the Basque Autnomous Community polling 2.67% of the total votes, 0.42% less than Aralar-Zutik coalition's result four years ago. In Navarre the party joined the Nafarroa Bai coalition, which obtained the 18.53% (+0,55) and one seat, still held by Barkos. [http://www.elecciones.mir.es/MIR/jsp/resultados/index.htm] [http://www.elmundo.es/especiales/2008/02/espana/elecciones2008/resultados/googlemaps/]
External links
* [http://www.aralar.net Aralar's Official webpage] (in Basque and Spanish)
* [http://www.iratzarri.org Iratzarri]
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