Madrid
The parliament of Spain’s autonomous Basque province voted last week to hold a referendum on secession, only to be promptly rebuffed by the Spanish government. Basque Prime Minister Juan Jose Ibarretxe said that giving Basques the chance to vote on independence would end the long campaign of bombings and shootings by Basque separatists. But Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero said secession was against Spain’s constitution and was not an option. “This proposal, which has no legal basis, is going nowhere,” Zapatero said. “And Ibarretxe knows that.”
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