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.
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.
[1] The 2008 referendum was proposed by former lehendakari (president of the Basque country autonomous community) Juan José Ibarretxe.
[5] Eventually in his plans, if his coalition still held the government, another referendum in 2010 would then decide the final status of the Basque Country.
The ruling at no time acknowledges the existence of the Basques, who are quoted in reported style (claimed by the appellant), as opposed to the Spanish nation.
[4] Following the PNV's (Basque Nationalist Party) appeal, in February 2010 the European Court of Human Rights upheld the Spanish Constitutional Court ruling,[1] ruling that the Spanish government had not violated the European Convention on Human Rights.
On the day the vote was to have taken place, Saturday October 25, 2008, some 20,000 protesters rallied in six Basque cities demanding a referendum on proposed moves towards independence.