MOSCOW, September 25 (RIA Novosti) - The President of the Basque Government, Iñigo Urkull, has appealed to Spain's "political elite" to bring the Spanish Constitution in line with the Basque "people's will" and demanded the "recognition of Euskadi [the Basque Country] as a nation", EFE agency reported Thursday.
This appeal was made during Urkullu's speech at the plenary session of the Basque Parliament.
The Basque Country is a secessionist region in Spain. ETA, an armed Basque nationalist organization, has killed more than 800 people in the last 50 years in its attempts to achieve independence from Madrid. However, neither weapons nor negotiations have brought Basques closer to a referendum on autonomy as the Spanish central government continues to reject the possibility.
The recent independence referendum in Scotland is now seen as the main reason pushing Europe's nationalists and secessionists to voice their demands and expand their independence movements.
Scottish voters took part in a referendum on independence on September 18 and opted to remain the part of the UK. Nevertheless, many European independence movements have declared they will continue demanding recognition.
