Spain's government is to take the Basque regional authority to court over an autonomy plan that Madrid says would 'mutilate' the country's 25-year-old constitution, Justice Minister Jose Maria Michavila said yesterday.
The move heightens the confrontation between Spain's central government and the regional authority over Basque premier Juan Jose Ibarretxe's proposal for the Basque Country to have 'free association' status within Spain.
Mr Ibarretxe says the plan will help end more than 30 years of separatist violence by ETA, the armed group that is listed as terrorist by the United States and the European Union.
A report from the State Justice Service said the plan would 'shatter the institutions of democratic co-existence' and contravened the basic democratic principles and essential values of the 1978 constitution.
