Basque leader accepts ruling baring self determination referendum

 2008-09-12 13:40:03 - MADRID, Spain (AP) - The president of Spain's troubled Basque region says he respects a court ruling that bars a referendum on self-determination, but he likened it to stifling people's right to express an opinion. Juan Jose Ibarretxe calls the decision by Spain's highest court even worse than «an attack on Basque self-government. He read from a statement Friday and said it is unprecedented in 21st-century Europe for a government not to be able to ask its people their opinion.
Ibarretxe is a Basque nationalist who had called the nonbinding referendum for Oct. 25.