Foro Ermua
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The Foro Ermua (Ermua Forum in English) is a Spanish civic association, the membership of which is comprised of Basque citizens. It was founded on the thirteenth of January, 1998; its current president is Mikel Buesa.
The Foro Ermua states that its formation was spurred by the murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco, a politican in Ermua in Biscay, on the part of the ETA. (This murder had taken place on 12 July 1997, several months before the Foro Ermua was founded.) Before the Foro Ermua's official foundation, Blanco's murder also began the local movement of the espíritu de Ermua, or "Ermua spirit," which was a general feeling of solidarity that sprung up amongst the people of Ermua after Blanco's kidnapping and death. Indeed, the Foro Ermua was also created as an organization to more formally express the "Ermua spirit" of the public.
The Foro Ermua's politics are democratic in nature, in contrast to what they describe as the "nationalistic fascism" of the ETA's views [1], although they do not intend to stand for a political party.
It has these objectives:
- To support, to protect, and to promote the recognition of victims of terrorism. Indeed, members of the Foro Ermua have been attacked by ETA themselves; the first president of Foro Ermua, Vidal de Nicolás, is protected by bodyguards.
- To aid the unity of constitutionalist forces in Basque Country.
- To denounce acts of terrorism forcefully and decisively.
- To avoid any political negotiation between the ETA and the government, except for the presentation of an official government order for the ETA to surrender and disband.
