Editing Batasuna (section)

==History and outline==

The party was founded in April 1978 as '''Herri Batasuna''', a coalition of leftist nationalist political groups mostly originating from [[Euskadiko Ezkerra]] initially brought together to advocate for "no" in the [[1978 Spanish constitutional referendum|referendum to be held that year]] on the [[Spanish Constitution of 1978|Spanish constitution]].

Its constituent parties had been called together by senior Basque nationalist [[Telesforo de Monzón]] in a 1978 meeting called "the table of [[Alsasua]]." Herri Batasuna's founding convention was held in [[Lekeitio]], home of [[Santiago Brouard]] who was then the leader of [[HASI]] (Herriko Alderdi Sozialista Iraultzailea or Revolutionary Socialist People's Party). The party won 150,000 votes in the Basque Country (15%) and 22,000 additional votes in Navarre (9%) in its first [[1979 Spanish general election|Spanish general election]] in March 1979. Thus, they won three seats in the Spanish Parliament, which they did not occupy. Same happened in 1980 in the [[1980 Basque parliamentary election|first elections to the Basque Parliament]], in which HB stood as second political force, with 151,636 votes (16.55%) winning 11 seats. Its absence allowed a [[Basque Nationalist Party|BNP]]-only Basque Government led by [[Carlos Garaikoetxea]]. On 20 November 1984 Brouard was assassinated by two members of the [[Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación|GAL]]. The killing is perhaps the only one performed by the GAL [[death squad]] within Spain itself.

Another well-known Herri Batasuna leader and newly elected Spanish MP, [[Josu Muguruza]], was assassinated by right-wing extremists in November 1989 in [[Madrid]]. [[GAL (paramilitary group)|GAL]] claimed responsibility for Muguruza's assassination. Suspicions also centered on Spanish neo-Nazi group [[Bases Autónomas]].<ref>Rafael Leonisio, Fernando Molina, and Diego Muro, ''ETA's Terrorist Campaign: From Violence to Politics, 1968-2015'' (Philadelphia: Routledge, 2016), 122, https://books.google.com/books?id=2C9EDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT122; Christopher Ross, Bill Richardson, and Begoña Sangrador-Vegas, ''Contemporary Spain'' (Philadelphia: Routledge, 2016), 100, https://books.google.com/books?id=2p_7CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100.</ref>