The Basque political organization Herri Batasuna was born in 1978 and was established as an electoral coalition. It took part in the general elections of 1 March 1979 where it achieved three deputies and a senator.

On 5 June 1986 Herri Batasuna was entered in the register of political parties at the Ministry of the Interior.

In 1997 the party tried to show a video featuring armed and masked ETA guerrillas during general election campaign. This was the first time any members of the party were jailed for co-operating with ETA: 23 leaders of Herri Batasuna were jailed.

In 1998 Herri Batasuna became into Euskal Herritarrok (EH). It was then when Lizarra-Garazi agreement took place and EH obtained 12 seats in the Basque Parliament.

In 2001, the European Union declares ETA a terrorist organisation, the first time all 15 member governments have labelled ETA as such. In the same year EH changed to Batasuna and two years later to Sozialista Abertzaleak.

After having been outlawed in 2003, Batasuna''s core support revamped yet again by co-opting the so far marginal parties EHAK and Acción Nacionalista Vasca (ANV).

In 2003, Batasuna was declared illegal in Spain. In spite of legal text forbidding its reorganization under another name, former members planned running for the provincial and local elections of May 2003, under the names of Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea (AuB, Meeting Place for Self-determination) and a plethora of local lists. Most of these lists were considered a disguise for Batasuna by the Spanish Supreme Court.

The ban prohibitted their representatives from contesting elections, holding public demonstrations or rallies and freezes their assets. On the 26th the Spanish parliament voted for an indefinite ban, 295 to 10. The party''s main offices in Pamplona were closed by the police and further offices in San Sebastian, Bilbao and Vitoria-Gasteiz were targeted.

In May 2004, a list named Herritarren Zerrenda (Citizens'' List) was presented in Spain and France to the European Parliament Election, 2004. Spanish tribunals rejected it, as a successor of Batasuna.

However, party activity did not cease completely, as proved by the fact that on October 4, 2007 twenty-three top members of Batasuna were arrested as they left a secret meeting in Segura (Guipúzcoa), accused of holding an illegal political meeting.