Basque Nationalist Party
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| Basque Nationalist Party EAJ-PNV | |
|---|---|
| Image:EAJ-PNV.gif | |
| Leader | Josu Jon Imaz |
| Founded | 1895 |
| Headquarters | Sabin Etxea, Ibáñez de Bilbao,16 -Bilbao |
| Political ideology | Basque Nationalism,Centrism, Christian Democracy,Social liberalism, Conservative |
| International affiliation | Alliance of American and European Democrats |
| Website | www.eaj-pnv.com |
| Basque Country (autonomous community) |
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The Basque Nationalist Party is a Basque nationalist party; as of 2007 is the largest political party in the Basque Autonomous Community. It led Basque regional government under the Spanish Second Republic and has done so again during the democratic decades following the rule of Francisco Franco.
In Basque it is called Eusko Alderdi Jeltzalea (EAJ) and in Castilian it is called the Partido Nacionalista Vasco (PNV). In Spain it is commonly referred to as EAJ-PNV. The French branch is the Parti Nationaliste Basque (PNB).The chairman of the EBB of EAJ-PNV is Josu Jon Imaz.
The youth wing of the Basque Nationalist Party is Euzko Gaztedi-EGI.
The party also has offices among the Basque diaspora, mainly Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Chile and the United States.
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[edit] Origins and early history
The party was founded in 1895 by Sabino de Arana y Goiri as a Catholic conservative, party agitating for the restoration of self-government and the denfese of the "Basque race". Currently, it describes itself as Basque, democratic, participatory, plural, and humanist. It is a moderate nationalist party which favours greater autonomy, if not independence itself, for the Basque region. PNV opposes political violence.
In its beginnings, the party established a requirement for its members to prove Basque ancestry by having a minimum number of Basque surnames.
In 1921, the Arana movement split into the moderate Comunión Nacionalista Vasca ("Basque Nationalist Communion") and the independentist Aberri ("Homeland").
During the single-party dictatorship rule of general Miguel Primo de Rivera, the nationalist parties were outlawed and persecuted. However, its activity continued under the guise of mountain (mendigoizale) and folklore clubs.
At the end of 1930, Aberri and CNV reunited under the old name of EAJ-PNV. However, a small group formed Acción Nacionalista Vasca ("Basque Nationalist Action"). It was on the moderate nationalist left, non-confessional and open to alliances with the republican and socialist parties fighting against the dictatorship.
[edit] The Second Spanish Republic
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[edit] 1934-1935
The division between autonomism and independentism appeared again during the second Spanish Republic. Headed by Eli Gallastegi, a small group of radical independentists, gathered around the weekly Jagi-Jagi and the Mountaineer Federation of Biscay, left the party. They rejected the autonomy that PNV was working for.
[edit] The Spanish civil war and Franco's rule
After the coup of 18 July 1936, the party felt torn.
It shared the rebel side's Catholicism and there was pressure from the Vatican to keep away from the Republic, but the promised autonomy and anti-Fascism led them to side with the legitimate republican government:
- The Biscayne and Guipuzcoan branches, the more important in number, declared support for the republic, democracy and anti-Fascism in the ensuing Spanish Civil War.
- In the territory seized by the rebels, PNV members faced tough times:
- The Alavese and Navarrese committees published notes refusing support to the Republic.
- Some nationalists could flee to France or the Republican area.
- Some faced the rebel forces, ending in prison or shot.
- Some joined the Carlist battalions, either out of conviction or to avoid attacks.
- The repression was focused on leftists, but nationalists were also targeted. The party premises and press were closed in that month of July.
Initially, the Defence Committees in Biscay and Guipuzcoa were dominated by the Popular Front. Although with enough difficulties, Basque autonomy was granted within the Second Spanish Republic and the new Basque Government inmediately organized the Basque Army, consisting of militias recruited by each of the political organizations, including PNV.
José Antonio Aguirre, the party leader, became the first lendakari (Basque president) of the wartime multipartite Basque Government, ruling the unconquered parts of Biscay and Guipuzcoa. After the surrendering of the Basque Army to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontari in Santoña (1937), the exile government moved to Barcelona until the fall of Catalonia and then out of Spain to the exile, first to France where they organized the camps and services with the president heading it personally. He was in Belgium when Hitler occupied that country and so he started a long travel to Berlin under a false identity. Under the protection of a Panamanian ambassador, he got to reach Sweden and dodging the SS German intelligency, he arrived to Brazil and Uruguay, where his dignity was reinstated and given visa to New York, where he stablished under the protection of American-Basques as teacher of Columbia University. When the United States decided to back Franco in 1952 he went to France anew where the Basque Government in exile was established. Also, he learned there that the pro-Nazi French government of Vichy confiscated the Basque Government's building and that De Gaulle maintained it under the Franco government's possession, a building that today is ironically the Instituto Cervantes premises. Anyway, the president of the government in exile was always a PNV member and even the sole Spanish representative in the United Nations was the Basque appointee Jesús de Galíndez until his murder in an obscure episode at the time of Spanish entry into the United Nations. He also decided to put the large Basque exiles' network at the service of the Allied side and collaborated with the US Secretary of State and the CIA during the Cold War to fight Communism in Spanish America.
[edit] Presidents of the Basque Nationalist Party since 1895
Note: The National Council of the Basque Nationalist Party (Euzkadi-Buru-Batzar) was created in 1911. Therefore, Sabino Arana and Ángel Zabala were only presidents of the Regional Council of Biscay (Bizkai-Buru-Batzar)
- 1895-1903 Sabino de Arana y Goiri
- 1903-1906 Ángel Zabala Ozamiz
- 1906-1908 Deputation formed by Santiago Alda, Alipio Larrauri, Antonio Arroyo, Vicente Larrinaga and Eduardo Arriaga.
- 1911?-1916 Luis de Arana y Goiri
- 1916-1920 Ramón Bikuña
- 1920-1930 Ignacio Rotaeche (Comunión Nacionalista Vasca)
- 1922-1930 Luis de Arana y Goiri (Aberri)
- 1930 Ceferino de Jemein (Aberri)
- 1931-1932 Ramón Bikuña
- 1932-1933 Luis de Arana y Goiri
- 1933-1934 Jesús Doxandabaratz
- 1934-1935 Isaac López Mendizábal
- 1935-1951 Doroteo Ciáurriz
- 1951-1953 Juan Ajuriaguerra
- 1957-1962 José Aguerre
- 1975-1977 Ignacio Unceta
- 1977-1980 Carlos Garaikoetxea
- 1980-1984 Xabier Arzalluz
- 1984-1985 Román Sudupe
- 1985-1986 Jesús Insausti
- 1986-2004 Xabier Arzalluz
- Since 2004 Josu Jon Imaz
[edit] JeL
JeL (Jaungoikoa eta Lagi-zaŕa, "God and the old law" in Basque, Lege-zaharra in Standard Basque) is the motto of the party. The "old laws" referred to are the fueros, privileges granted to the Basque provinces by Spanish kings which were revoked after the Carlist Wars. The motto of Basque Carlists was Dios, patria, fueros, rey ("God, country, Fueros, king"). Many nationalists came from a Carlist background. As the mottos show, the nationalists rejected the support to Carlist pretenders and considered their "country" the Basque Country instead of Spain.
JEL is the origin of jelkide ("JEL-companion", EAJ-PNV member) and jeltzale ("JEL-follower", as in the gloss of EAJ, Eusko Alderdi Jeltzalea).
[edit] Alderdi Eguna
Alderdi Eguna ("Party Day") is the national holiday of the Basque Nationalist Party which is annually celebrated on the last Sunday of September, the Sunday closest to the feast day of Saint Michael, the patron saint of Euskal Herria and of the Basque Nationalist Party.
The central act of this celebration is a political meeting of leading nationalists, but the celebration begins in the morning with a traditional festival in which the different municipal organizations from the party set up stands to sell drinks and their more typical products, all brightened up by traditional music. Dances and traditional sports are also enjoyed. The celebration takes place in an open air arena (currently in Foronda, Álava), and lasts until nightfall.
[edit] Recent years
ETA was created by members of the Basque Nationalist Party in 1958 who were dissatisfied by the Party's supposedly moderate policies.
To date, PNV has dominated in every administration of the Basque government, although the socialist Ramón Rubial started being head of the Basque General Council until the first autonomous elections.
It was a founder part of the Christian Democrat International. Now the party has joined the recently formed European Democratic Party, with the French Union pour la Démocratie Française, the former European officer Romano Prodi and other parties.
In 1987, dissenters from the party formed the rival Eusko Alkartasuna ("Basque Solidarity") Carlos Garaikoetxea was then elected as the first president of the rival party.
The split from the PNV was based on:
- A personality clash between the lehendakari Garaikoetxea (who went to form EA) and the PNV leader Xabier Arzalluz.
- The configuration of the Basque Country:
- A strong Basque government and weak provinces (EA).
- Strong provinces (PNV).
- Social democrat (EA) / conservative (PNV)
The split was particularly bitter given the fact that it was headed by the lehendakari himself; every local organization had to vote, whether to go to EA or remain in PNV. Many PNV political bars (batzoki, "meeting place") became alkartetxe ("mutual house"). Ramón Doral, an Basque policeman closely connected to PNV was condemned on wiretapping of EA leaders for PNV.
Since 1991, as time has eased the bitter split (helped by the fact that both Arzalluz and Garaikoetxea have gone into political retirement), both parties agreed to form an electoral coalition in a number of local elections as a means to maximalize the nationalist votes, which eventually led to reunite both candidatures in a joint list again for the regional governments of Navarra and the Basque Autonomous Community in 1998. Thus, EA has participated in several PNV-led Basque governments, including the current one of President Juan José Ibarretxe Markuartu. Still, EA has decided to run by itself next municipal elections to be held in May 2007.
In Navarre, EA and PNV formed the coalition Nafarroa Bai with other nationalist parties.
President Juan José Ibarretxe has spearheaded a call for the reform of the Statute of Autonomy that governs the Basque Country Autonomous Community, through a proposal widely known as the Ibarretxe Plan which was rejected by the Cortes Generales.
[edit] Position in recent referenda
PNV called for:
- Abstention in the Referendum for Spanish Constitution in 1978.
- Yes to permanence of Spain in the NATO in 1986. PNV called to vote Bai, (Yes in Basque language) even though electoral rules were to count only votes in Spanish, while votes in other languages would count as void. On the last week of the campaign, Spanish administration changed the rules so as to count votes in the co-official languages of Spain. The Yes won the vote in Spain, but the No was the first choice among the electors of the Basque Auntonomous Community.
- Yes to the European Constitution proposal in the referendum held in Spain in 21 February, 2005.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- EAJ-PNV page in English (Spanish)(Basque)(English)
- EGI, youth movement of EAJ-PNV (Basque)
- Basque Nationalism Museum(Spanish)(Basque) (English)
- The cradle of Basque nationalism
- Manifiesto y Organización del Partido Nacionalista Vasco, PNV's internal rules from 1906. As heavy scanned JPEG images of Spanish text. (Spanish)
