He came back to the political scene last fall, running unsuccessfully for the leadership of the Bloc Quebecois, the separatist party.

Central government loses its legitimacy as the planner of the economy, and ethnic minorities vote for separatist parties.

The special Kremlin meeting was considered an attempt to at least defer, if not cancel, the vote for a separatist party.

But opinion polls indicate that support for independence and his separatist party have sagged to the 35-40 percent range.

Aralar is a Basque socialist and separatist political party in Spain.

In both elections, separatist parties won overwhelming majorities of seats with a minority of the vote.

Czechoslovakia has been sliding toward dissolution since elections last month brought a separatist party to power in Slovakia, the eastern region of the country.

His name was Gurjit Singh, and he said he had been arrested four times for working with a separatist party.

The separatist party lost several local elections 12 days ago, including those in Milan, the economic center.

So far, however, the separatist party has not been able to regain its footing.