Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- A new pro-independence Basque political party that says it rejects the violence of the armed Basque separatist group ETA on Wednesday presented its bylaws to the Spanish government, hoping it will be able to field candidates in local elections next May.
But Spain's Interior Ministry was expected to send the bylaws to the courts to determine if the new party is really new or just a continuation - under a different name - of the Batasuna party outlawed in 2003 for being ETA's political wing.
At a press conference in Madrid, a leader of the new party, college professor Inaki Zabaleta, declined to answer reporters' questions whether the new party would call on ETA directly to disband and lay down its arms, as the government has demanded. So far, the party has only said that it "rejects" ETA's violence.
"We are not the continuation of anything," Zabaleta told reporters.
Zabaleta also declined to say if the new party leaders would meet with the victims of ETA, which is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its decades-long fight for Basque independence.
ETA, listed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, on January 10 unilaterally declared a "permanent, general and verifiable" cease-fire.
But the Spanish government and most opposition parties are wary of the cease-fire because ETA has broken previous unilateral truces, notably another "permanent" cease-fire in 2006, during which an ETA car bomb at Madrid's airport killed two men and caused extensive damage.
Zabaleta said the new party -- called Sortu, which means "to create" in the ancient Basque language -- rejects all violence, including ETA's, and will "exclusively use political and democratic means in order to create a Basque state in the European Union."
Various political leaders say the new party's rejection of ETA's violence is a significant step forward for the troubled Basque region, but they remain wary of Sortu.
Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said earlier this week the government would send the party's bylaws to the courts for review.
Analysts say Sortu hopes to win in the upcoming May 22 elections some of the many municipal mayorships and town council seats that Batasuna once held in the Basque region. The local posts would give the party a platform to push for Basque independence, and also control over lucrative municipal budgets.
At the Madrid news conference on Wednesday, Sortu leaders were accompanied by Alex Maskey, a member of Northern Ireland's political party Sinn Fein, which is closely associated with the IRA -- Irish Republican Army -- that laid down its arms as part of a 1998 peace agreement.
"The Irish people had a number of critical moments in the peace process," Maskey said. "I believe the creation of Sortu is an historical development. I would urge that all people, and in particular the government of Spain, seize the moment of this opportunity."
ETA has fought for independence for four provinces in northern Spain with historic Basque roots, along with three departments just across the border in southwest France.
Police crackdowns against ETA in Spain and in its traditional rear-guard bases in France -- and, more recently, in Portugal -- are widely credited with weakening the group, whose attacks and killings have declined sharply in the past few years.
About 800 ETA convicts or suspects are imprisoned in Spain and France, the Spanish government has said.
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