The Basque Government received notification from the Spanish Constitutional Court that it had accepted an appeal, with request for suspension, presented by the President of the Spanish central government against the Basque parliament Act of Public Consultation, passed on 27 June, on the grounds of its unconstitutional nature.

Whenever an appeal is admitted by the Constitutional Court, the Act or law appealed against is automatically suspended. Logically, the presentation of the appeal by Spain's President Rodríguez Zapatero-on 15 July, according to the official notification-means the suspension of the regional government's Act.

Therefore Rodríguez Zapatero is solely and exclusively responsible for a legitimate, legal decision democratically reached by the Basque Parliament being on hold today. The Act provides the means for officially consulting the Basques, and in effect means the suspension of our political self-government, the right to which is contained in the Statute of Guernica.

In the ruling received by the Basque regional government, the Constitutional Court accepted the request from the Spanish Public Prosecutor to make August a working month so it can substantiate its objection without giving a hearing to the parties empowered to act in the case. Indeed, the Basque Government has still not been called to appear in the suit.

The Government has called on the Constitutional Court to work fast, but the full exercise of the right to effective legal protection cannot be exercised without prejudice to the equality of conditions in the capacity to act of the parties involved.

Although this is undoubtedly a minor issue, the Basque regional government hopes this is not a precedent of how the Constitutional Court is going to apply legal procedures in this suit.

The-at least apparent-speed with which the Constitutional Court is acting in this affair contrasts with the unjustified and unjustifiable sloth the Court has shown when tackling issues like the appeal presented nearly two years ago by the Regional President in respect of his clearly unconstitutional prosecution, in the words of the Supreme Court in a similar case affecting the Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Not counting (of the many examples available) the 10 years and more that the Constitutional Court has so far taken to resolve the appeal presented by a previous Spanish Government, led by José María Aznar, against another Basque parliamentary Act, this time on Sport.

However that may be, the Basque government announces that it will appear, in compliance with its legal right, in the Constitutional Court proceedings and will present its defence in the 15 days established for that purpose. Next Tuesday's regional Cabinet meeting will see the first decisions on the issue.

The Constitutional Court now faces a dilemma: is it prepared to stain its past record of protecting fundamental rights by refusing the fundamental right of Basque citizens to political participation?

In any case, the deterioration, misgovernment and discredit of the administration of justice in Spain are generally acknowledged to be the result, among other things, of its politicization by the two major Spanish parties PSOE and PP.

This state of things also clearly extends to constitutional justice, as the current state of the Constitutional Court shows. The mandate of present Court members finalized some time ago, but they remain where they are, violating the public act of the Spanish Parliament that regulates the way the Court functions (something that has also happened with the stipulations of the Act concerning the appointment of some members at the proposal of the Spanish Autonomous Communities).

And to solve this deterioration, this misgovernment and this discredit we are told a new Pact on Justice agreed, as ever, between just two parties, two only, between PSOE and PP, a move to be discussed at the imminent meeting between Rodríguez Zapatero and Rajoy.

Like any democrat, the Basque Government expects the Constitutional Court to put legal reasoning before political expediency, democratic argument before reasons of state.

Vitoria, 18 July 2008.