programs of Batasuna to the Basque regional parliament. (EHAK had been legally registered in 2002 but had no known activity until 2005). The party could participate in those elections, but then was declared illegal by a court ruling because of ties with Batasuna, which prevented it from contesting the 2007 Spanish regional elections. Then, the same strategy was tried by co-opting Acción Nacionalista Vasca a historical, yet basically inactive Basque party. This time, the Spanish Supreme Court could make a quick assessment of ANV's municipal candidates, which resulted in roughly half of them being banned (because the candidates included people who had previously run for the illegal Herri Batasuna or Batasuna) while the other half was ruled lawful and could participate in the elections to be held shortly after the ruling. Then, in September 2008 the full legal inquiry on the party was finalized, ruling that ANV as a whole was illegal, due to ties with Batasuna-ETA. The Basque regional government, then led by a Basque nationalist coalition of the PNV and EA objected to these legal rulings. As a result of this pressure, for the first time since Herri Batasuna was formed, neither Batasuna nor its proxies could participate in the Basque regional parliament at the time of the 2009 Basque parliamentary election. In February 2011, Sortu, a party described as "the new Batasuna", was launched. Unlike predecessor parties, Sortu claimed that it explicitly rejected politically motivated violence, including that of ETA; however it did not condemn the record of ETA nor ask for the disbandment of the armed organization. Sortu was banned in March 2011 from registering as a political party by the Supreme Court of Spain. Some members went on to form another party called Bildu, which was first banned but then allowed to register. Currently, it is Bildu which represents at the Parliament the electoral base of Batasuna. Reaction In October 2008 demonstrations were held in Bilbao to protest a Supreme Court decision the month before to ban ANV and EHAK, because of their ties to Batasuna. The protesters had a banner that read "Freedom for Euskal Herria." The protests was organised by left-wing Basque nationalists. ANV president, Kepa Bereziartua, and the former spokesman for Batasuna, Arnaldo Otegi, were present in the march. Rulings of the European Court of Human Rights At the time of its outlawing in Spain, Batasuna lawyers took the case to the