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The proposed 2008 referendum was a poll intended to occur in the Basque Country in that year, but prevented by the Supreme Court of Spain at the instigation of the Spanish Government.
The poll was to be a consultative referendum, in which two questions were put to the electorate, concerning self-determination from Spain. It was scheduled for 25 October 2008 but the Spanish government challenged the decision to hold the vote in the Constitutional Court of Spain, which ruled on 11 September 2008 that the referendum call was against the law. In turn, the PNV (Basque Nationalist Party) appealed against this ruling, to the European Court of Human Rights, which later upheld the Spanish Constitutional Court ruling in February 2010.[1]
The 2008 referendum was proposed by former lehendakari (president of the Basque country autonomous community) Juan José Ibarretxe. The first question was to concern whether to engage in talks with ETA; the second was to be on whether there should be a political debate on the "right to decide about the Basque people", a coded reference to the issue of Basque Country independence.
- ^ "Estrasburgo no admite el recurso del PNV sobre la anulación de la consulta soberanista". El País. Elpais.com. 2010-02-23. Retrieved 2013-07-12.