Basques form 123km chain for independence vote

Tens of thousands of Basques held hands yesterday to form a 123km chain stretching across the northern Spanish region calling for the right to hold a vote on independence.

Organising group “It’s in Our Hands” estimated some 100,000 people joined the chain, which echoed a similar demonstration on Sept 11 last year in Catalonia, another Spanish region with a big independence movement.

Demonstrators draped in red-white-and-green Basque flags raised their linked hands as helicopters flew over the line stretching from the city of Durango to Pamplona some 76 miles away, which is not in Basque Country but is in the neighbouring Navarra region considered part of Basque cultural and linguistic territory.