The ''Foro Ermua'' () was a Spanish civic association, the membership of which was composed of Spanish citizens (most of them living in the Basque Country). It was founded on 13 January 1998; its last president was Mikel Buesa. The organisation states that its formation was brought about by the killing of

Miguel Ángel Blanco Miguel Ángel Blanco Garrido (13 May 1968 – 13 July 1997) was a Spanish economist and municipal politician and a member of the People's Party, in Ermua, the Basque Country. He was kidnapped and murdered by the Basque separatist group ETA. ...

, a conservative city council member in

Ermua Ermua is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. In 2019, Ermua had 15,880 inhabitants. Ermua is a town in the Durangaldea comarca of the province of Biscay in nor ...

Biscay Biscay ( ; ; ), is a province of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the Bay of Biscay, eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilb ...

, by members of the Basque separatist group

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

. (This assassination had taken place on 12 July 1997, several months before the Foro Ermua was founded.) Prior to the Forum's official foundation, Blanco's killing also resulted in a local movement called ''espíritu de Ermua'', or "Ermua spirit", which was a general feeling of solidarity that sprung up amongst many local people after Blanco's kidnapping and death. Members of the organisation consider its foundation to be an attempt to continue the 'Ermua spirit'. The organisation views its activities as democratic in nature and in line with the existing structures of the Spanish state, in contrast to what they describe as the "nationalistic fascism" of ETA's views. Although they do not openly align themselves with any political party, its members tend to be associated either with the Spanish conservative party, the

People's Party (Spain) The People's Party ( ; known mostly by its acronym, PP ) is a Conservatism, conservative and Christian democracy, Christian democratic list of political parties in Spain, political party in Spain. The People's Party was a 1989 re-foundation o ...

, or with the centrist

Union, Progress and Democracy Union, Progress and Democracy ( , UPyD ) was a Spanish list of political parties in Spain, political party founded in September 2007 and dissolved in December 2020. It was a social liberalism, social-liberal party that rejected any form of nation ...

, or they are independent conservatives. The forum lists the following objectives: * To support, to protect, and to promote recognition of the victims of Basque terrorism. (Some members of the Forum have been attacked by ETA themselves; the first president of Foro Ermua, Vidal de Nicolás, is protected by private

bodyguard A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects an very important person, important person or group of people, such as high-ranking public offic ...

s). * To aid the unity of

constitutionalist Constitutionalism is "a compound of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law". Political organizations are constitutional to ...

forces in Basque Country against

Basque Nationalists Basque nationalism ( ; ; ) is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group Indigenous peoples of Europe, indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation and promotes the political unity of the Basques, today scattered bet ...

and Independentists. * To denounce violent acts carried out by ETA forcefully and decisively. * To avoid any political negotiation between ETA or its representatives and the government, except for the presentation of an official government order for ETA to surrender and disband.

Criticism

Critics of the Ermua forum, mainly members of the radical pro-independence Basque movement, have accused it of being a front for conservative Spanish political forces opposed to Basque

Self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

, independence and

Nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

The English version of foroermua.com
Basque politics Terrorism in Spain 1998 establishments in Spain 2008 disestablishments in Spain Basque conflict