Sortu

Sortu is a Basque socialist political party founded in February 2011. It is part of the Basque nationalist (or abertzale) left and for the first time a political party of the far nationalist left which outright rejects of ETA's violence. Before Sortu, sections of the Basque nationalist left who rejected ETA's violence left the movement and founded another party, Aralar, to represent that element of the abertzale left.

At a press conference on February 8, 2011, party supporters backed a Basque state "within a European Union framework, via exclusively peaceful and political channels." They further rejected all violence "categorically and without hesitation...including that of ETA."

The Guardian and other papers described the party as a new iteration of the Batasuna, ETA's political wing, which has been banned since 2003. The District Attorney of the Basque Country High Court, however, stated that the two parties are not the same and that Sortu "has said things never previously said." The Spanish government announced in January 2011 that it will ask the courts to rule on the legality of the new party. "If this rejection of violence included in the statutes of the new party allow for the end of this situation of illegality or not, it is a decision that is up to judges" said Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.