Delay over Communists may mar Spanish poll

Press, 26 February 1977, Page 6

Delay over Communists may mar Spanish poll

NZPA-Reuter Madrid I ( i.r Spanish Opposition leaders jc have warned the Govern- e ment that its delay in decid- jr ing whether the Communist It Party should be made legal I ( could jeopardise co-operation [t in the run-up to the General Election later this year. ,r Criticising Government [( moves in the past three s days, a committee of 10 Op- T position leaders also at-jl; tacked the authorities for if recognising a socialist splin-: y ter group which is disowned [it by the country’s main i Socialist Party. ii The group o; 10, ranging r from Communists to Chris- e tian Democrats, said that <

Opposition parties might; now reconsider a policy of'; co-operation with the Gov-; < ernment that has produced;! recent negotiations between;( the Prime Minister (Mr 1t Adolfo Suarez) and Opposi-' 1 tion moderates. ■ On Tuesday, the Govern- ( ment asked the Supreme ( Court to decide whether the 1 aims of the Communist i Party fell within Spanish c law, enabling it to attain legal status after nearly 40 years as an underground < movement. t The Opposition committee t insisted all parties had to be - made legal if Parliamentary * elections were to be truly ‘ democratic. S

In a move which emphaIsised just how much the (Communists have come out !of hiding, the party leader i(Mr Santiago Carrillo) said ion Thursday that he would ■hold a “Eurocommunist summit” with the French Communist leader (Mr Georges Marchais) and the Italian party chief (Mr Enrico Berlinguer) in Madrid on March 2 and 3. Negotiations between the Government and the Opposition have been further threatened by the legalisation of a breakaway branch of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party.