NATIONAL IDENTITY CONFLICT AND SELF-GOVERNMENT
ARRANGEMENTS IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY
A COMPARATIVE APPROACH
THROUGH THE
Eduardo J. Ruiz Vieytez
INDEX
1)
INTRODUCTION
2)
THE BASQUE COUNTRY: AN OVERVIEW
3)
THE BASQUE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY AND THE AUTONOMOUS
3.1) TERRITORY
AND SOCIETY
a)
Territorial aspects
b)
Population and Society
3.2) POLITICS AND
CONFLICT
3.3) THE LEGAL
FRAMEWORK
a)
The Model
b)
Bodies and Political Representation
c)
Legal aspects
d)
Self-Government and Guarantees
4) CONCLUSIONS
AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
5) ANNEX:
SOME DATA ON BASQUE POLITICS
6) BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACCRONYMS
ABC Act on Autonomy (Statute) of the Basque Country
APST Autonomous
ATA Act on Autonomy (Statute) of Trentino-Alto
BAC Basque Autonomous Community
ETA Euskadi Ta Askatasuna / Basque Fatherland and Freedom
MEP Member of European Parliament
PNV Partido Nacionalista
Vasco / Basque Nationalist Party
SVP Südtiroler Volkspartei /
LIST OF TABLES AND MAPS
1. – INTRODUCTION
The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the main legal and
political elements of the current conflict in the Basque Country, through a
comparison with the case of
2.
- THE BASQUE COUNTRY: GENERAL OVERVIEW
The Basque Country[1] is
located in South-western
Map 1: Location of the Basque
territory (shadow area: lands above 1,000 m.)
The concept of “Basque Country” referred initially to the
Basque-speaking populations and, subsequently to the lands occupied by them. In
the 1st century the Basque-speaking area was much wider than now, from
Map 2: Regression of the
Basque speaking area (centuries 7th-20th).
Nowadays, the concept and delimitation of the Basque Country is not a
peaceful one. We consider the Basque Country to be formed by all the political
or historical communities in which the Basque language[4] (Euskera) and
culture have remained predominant in some way. However it is necessary to
clarify that there is a strong political opinion stating that
Map 3: The “seven Basque territories”
and the BAC
Iparralde is located in the 64th territorial administration division
or French Département, Atlantic
Map 4: Spanish autonomous
communities and French département 64.
The current
population of the Basque Country is around 2.8 million people, 2.1 million
living inside the BAC. The metropolitan
area of
Map 5: Approximation to the
distribution of the population in the Basque territories (picture shows
industrial employment amount per municipalities)
In linguistic terms, approximately 25% of the
population have Basque as mother tongue (30% in the BAC). The linguistic policy
on the Basque language in the Autonomous Community of Navarra
remains a conflictive issue. In general terms, more or less half a million
people on both sides of the
Map
6: Basque-speaking areas.
Map
7: Distribution of dialects of the Basque language.
Economically, the
Southern Basque Country is one of the richest areas in
The process of legal and political construction of the Spanish and
French monarchies was consolidated over the course of the Modern and
Contemporary Ages. The differences observed in the political regime of the
Basque Provinces of Biscay, Alava, Guipuzcoa, and Navarra, remained
intact until the nineteenth century. On the French side, however, every
political difference was suppressed during the Revolution.
Following the French model, a Spanish nationalism began to evolve along
the 19th century. The attempts to politically unify the kingdom came into
conflict with the special political regime of the
In 1931, following the proclamation in
The current Basque conflict, however, has not to do directly with the armed struggle, but with the political controversy about the sovereignty and the right to self-determination. The conflictive situation is lived in different degrees all across the country, but more strongly in the Southern part. The present system of autonomy in force for the Southern Basque Country is based on the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the historical rights of the referred four territories. Nowadays, Navarra is an Autonomous Community of its own, while the three provinces of Biscay, Gipuzkoa, and Alava set up the Basque Autonomous Community since 1979. For the purposes of this paper I will compare in general the situation and political system of the Autonomous Province of Bozen, on the one hand, and the BAC, on the other. Therefore, I will hereinafter refer to the BAC.
3.-
THE BASQUE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY AND THE AUTONOMOUS
Table
1: Basic data of BAC and APST
BAC APST
Size (km2) 7,000 14,000
% of the state territory 1.5 4.6
Population (thousands) 2,100 400
% of the state population 5.2 0.8
Inhabitants/km2 300 29
Capital Vitoria/Gasteiz Bolzano/Bozen
Share of vote for nationalist forces 55-60% 65-70%
a) Territorial aspects
The size of the APST (14,000
km2) is very similar to that of the Southern Basque Country (17,000 km2), and
approximately the double of the BAC (7,000 km2). In any case both autonomous
territories are very small in comparison with their respective states,
Both areas are characterised
by their dramatic landscape. In both cases, we find a very mountainous
territory that determines the traditional way of life in many aspects. In the
case of
Although the two countries
are geographically difficult areas, both
Map
8: Location of the Basque lands (shadow area: lands above 1,000 m.)
The two regions are similar in that both
are border regions. APST is located on the Italian border with the
This element of territorial
division is to some extent repeated in the interior of the respective Southern
territories. In the Basque situation, the perception of administrative division
is due to the fact that Navarra has not been
incorporated to the BAC. Even more, inside the BAC, the so-called historical
territories maintain a high level of political autonomy. In the
The last aspect concerning
the territory is that of the delimitation. This appears to be an important
issue in the current politics of
b) Population and Society
There is a substantial
difference between the population of the BAC and the APST. The former hosts
around five times more the population of the latter. As for the total of the
state population, BAC comprises around 5.2% of the Spanish population, while
APST represents only a 0.8% of the Italian population.
Both autonomous areas have
in common linguistic plurality and religious homogeneity among their respective
populations. Indeed,
Another important difference
in the linguistic reality of both countries is that the German language (a
minority language in the
Migration flows follow today
a very similar pattern in both cases. The BAC was for many years a very
attractive area for many inhabitants of rural areas in West and
3.2.-
POLITICS AND CONFLICT
From a political point of
view,
When we use the term
“Nationalist Ideology”, we normally refer to that aspiration to sovereignty
that can be appreciated in several nationalities or national minorities that do
not enjoy an own political framework or do not belong to their respective
kin-state. “State Ideology” in the sense
of the maintenance of territorial integrity without consideration to the wishes
for self-determination of these communities can be also considered as
nationalistic, but this expression is not normally used in this sense. We will
refer to this type of aspiration as “Unionist ideology”.
In this context, the origin
of the nationalist ideology in
Both conflicts have a common
past of suffering during the 20th century under different totalitarian regimens.
In the Tyrolean case, the fascist period lasted for 20 years from 1922 to 1943.
After the surrender of the Italian forces, the Nazi annexed de facto
In the same context, it is
worth mentioning that the nationalist ideology has played in both cases a
bigger role than the exclusively political one. The nationalist ideology has
functioned as an element of socialisation and a tool for the construction and
maintenance of the community itself. Nationalism, in this sense, has given to
the autochthonous culture, language, and way of life the space to develop apart
from the official net of the state. In both cases, with reference taken perhaps
to the Irish nationalism of the 19th century as a model, nationalism
has developed not only a strong political party (SVP in South Tyrol, PNV and
others in the Basque Country), but also a wide web of cultural, sport, leisure,
church associations, alternative systems of communications, community
activities, gatherings, and many other issues to support the sense of community
and the feeling of being different.
In the same sense, maybe it
is of interest to realise that in both communities the local Catholic Church
has traditionally played an important role to maintain and develop a different
national identity, mainly through the linguistic heritage. And it is also clear
the close link that there has traditionally been between the nationalist
movement and important sectors of the local Church. Both
It is worth mentioning here
that both SVP and PNV share a Christian-Democrat ideology. Both were members of
the European Christian-Democrat family from the foundation of this movement,
although today PNV does not make part of the European Peoples Party due to the
bitter differences with the Spanish Popular Party. However, for many years, the
respective MEPs of the SVP and PNV have participated
in the Popular Group of the European Parliament, while the affiliation to the
European Free Alliance of political parties representing European nationalities
has corresponded to much smaller parties as UFS (Union für
Südtirol) and EA (Eusko Alkartasuna) respectively.
On the other hand, the
unionist ideology is linked in both cases with the immigrant population living
in the APST or the BAC. However, in the Tyrolean case, due to the clear
division of linguistic communities, we can fully identify Italian-speaking
population (which means today descendants of immigrants) with unionism, while
in the Basque Country the reality is not so easy to establish. In fact, it is
easy to show the link in the vote between immigrants (or descendants of
immigrants) with unionist parties. And it is also true that one of the three
geographical origins of the current Spanish Workers Socialist Party was the
area of immigrant population around
Map 9: Political performance and electoral geography in the Basque Country.
In any case, both countries
show also an identity in the fact that nationalism is a majority ideology
according to regional polls. In APST, the votes got by the different German and
Ladin parties have always been more than 60%. In the
Basque case, according to the autonomous polls celebrated since 1980, political
parties in favour of self-determination for the Basque Country have in all
cases obtained also more than 60% of the votes.
Table 2: Vote share of political forces in favour
and against the right of the Basque people to self-determination in autonomous
polls.
Vote share 1980 1984 1986 1990 1994 1998 2001
In favour of
self-determination[10] 67.2 65.6 68.9 67.4 65.7 60.4 58.3
Against self-determination[11] 32.8 34.4 31.1 33.6 34.3 39.6 41.7
In this respect, in both
cases we can appreciate a very fixed behaviour in the electoral sociology. The
native/immigrant ascendant, the linguistic ability and the rural/urban
environment of living have a very strong influence on the vote of the
The most visible differences
between the political reality in
Firstly, the fact that
The issue of violent
expression of the conflict constitutes the second main difference between
It must be clearly said at
this point that the current support for the armed struggle carried out by ETA
in the Basque Country is becoming marginal. If the political branch of ETA (Batasuna) has fallen down to 10% of the votes in the last
polls after the break of the cease-fire (against 18% during the cease-fire in
1998), we know from different surveys that at least half of the voters of Batasuna do not agree with the use of violence by ETA. This
would mean that support for use of violence would be around 5%. It is also true
that after 40 years of armed struggle and violence not only by ETA but also
from the state side in many cases, there is an important sector of the
population suffering directly from the conflict (relatives of prisoners,
victims of state violence,…) whose position tends to
be favourable to the one of ETA. We cannot forget the years of the brutal
repression under Franco’s dictatorship and the campaigns of dirty war against
ETA carried out by the Spanish governments during the seventies and eighties.
Death-squads created by the Socialist government in the eighties caused around
30 dead, many of whom were completely innocent. Presently, there are still
repeated accusations of tortures and bad-treatment of detainees, exceptional
legislation for anti-terrorist fight that is questioned by the Council of
Europe, and a very hard policy against the ETA prisoners and their relatives
that is also widely contested by the Basque society. Of course, a vast majority
of the Basque population has shown many times its disapproval of ETA’s criminal
methods, and has asked for the dissolution of this group or, at least, its
abandonment of the use of violent methods for political purposes. In any case,
the violent element, not being a substantial part of the real political problem
of the Basque Country, complicates very much the search of lasting resolution
and makes the division between the different ideologies more and more bigger. In this respect, one can identify three
different and far distant blocks in the Basque politics: defenders of and
opponents to the right of self-determination and a third side represented by Batasuna, which does not condemn ETA’s violence, thus
making impossible any kind of political collaboration with the rest of Basque
national parties.
The third important element
of difference in this field is the perception of the conflict as a live or
settled one. In the
In the Basque case, however,
the political conflict is not solved at all, not because there are still
violent action by some extremist groups, but due to the persistence of a strong
disagreement on the self-determination question and the lack of legitimacy of
the whole legal framework. On the one hand, Spanish Constitution obtained a
very narrow support of the Basque population in the referendum held on
All this brings us to an
easy conclusion that the Basque political conflict is far away from a lasting
solution. Any analysis of the development of the Basque politics in the last
five years would stress the affirmation that the disagreement between Spanish
and Basque parties is even deeper than ever in the past. It is not easy to
foresee the future evolution of the situation in the Basque Country, although
there is a strong tendency towards a deadlock of the system, followed by a
deeper division of the society into the three different political blocks we
have referred to earlier.
Finally, another important
element in the solution of this type of conflicts is the attitude of the
population living in the state but outside the conflict region. In the Basque case,
the Spanish population experience the conflict in a very sensitive way and the
main Spanish political parties use the confrontation strategy against the
Basque nationalism in search of socio-political cohesion. The political debate
within Basque nationalism and fight against violent action are very often
highlighted, and the public opinion is strongly shaped by views of the state
mass media on this conflict. In such a situation, any possible solution in
terms of recognition of the demands of the nationalists can be seen as a
betrayal to of one of the essential elements of the state. At the same time,
the possible elements of asymmetry that could be integrated in favour of the
Basque Country would be understood as privileges, and other Autonomous Communities
would claim for the same level of self-government. Thus, asymmetry becomes very
difficult for the Spanish constitutional structure. It is rather subjective to
stand that this element is also present in the
3.3.-
THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK
a) The model
Both BAC and APST are
self-governed territories within the framework of the respective states of
If we look for an element of
asymmetry in the autonomous systems hitherto studied in respect to the rest of
autonomous communities or regions, the answer is controversial. In the case of
The
Constitution protects and respects the historic rights of the territories with
“fueros”.
The
general updating of the “fuero” system shall be
carried out, when appropriate, within the framework of the Constitution and the
Statutes of Autonomy.
The asymmetry can also be appreciated by considering the
territorial autonomy for the Basque Country as a kind of agreement between the
Basque people and the state. This principle of the contract is further
emphasised in the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country. The Additional
Provision to the Act on Autonomy of the Basque Country states that:
The
acceptance of the system of autonomy established in this Statute does not imply
that the Basque People waive the rights that as such may have accrued to them
in virtue of their history and which may be updated in accordance with the
stipulations of the legal system.
The Statute of Navarra includes also a very
similar Additional Provision, on the basis of the “historical rights” that
belong to the “historical territories” or territories with “fueros”.
These are the remaining consequences of the special political regime of the
history of the Basque Provinces of Biscay, Alava, Gipuzkoa, and Navarra, which
lasted until the 19th century.
In a nutshell, none of both
systems expressly recognises an asymmetrical model for the territorial autonomy
of the BAC or APST, but in both cases some peculiar legal elements can be
founded to defend a kind of special character of these autonomies.
b) Bodies and political representation
APST and BAC have adopted an
internal parliamentary system in which the president of the executive body is
elected by the parliament and is accountable to it. A difference in the system
is that the Basque president nominates the rest of the members of the
government, while in South Tyrol it is the provincial council that elects the
members of the executive, with due consideration of the linguistic groups. In
both cases we find a parliament with a sole chamber. However, in the case of
the Basque statute, the fact that Basque Parliament is composed by the same
number of members of each of the provinces (or historical territories),
regardless of their population (art 26 ABC), is a very remarkable
characteristic. This has a great political influence in the composition of the
parliament, once considered that Alava has only a
fifth of the population of Biscay. The explanation for this strange composition
is the idea of the Basque nationalism of building up a country highly
decentralised, giving very much power to the territories and their respective
parliaments and governments. In this sense, the central bodies of the
autonomous community would have wide functions of co-ordination, and the
parliament would remain the second chamber of a federal system. However, the
political practice in the Basque Country has erased this initial idea and today
the most important laws and decisions are taken by the central parliament of
the community. The representation of the two provinces in the regional
parliament of Trentino-Alto Adige
is also the same, although in this case differences in population are not so
important.
Likewise, the internal
distribution of political power is also a common characteristic in the BAC and
the autonomous Region of Trentino-Alto Adige. In both cases, under the autonomous level we find a
provincial level of autonomy with its own parliaments and governments
exercising political powers. This is in fact the case of the APST. In this
respect, both systems have this common element of a complexity in bodies
because instead of being a unique institutional level, there are two
territorial levels within the autonomous territory.
Concerning institutional
aspects, there is a difference in the autonomous systems that one should
examine regarding to the existence or inexistence of clearly defined
communities. Thus, in the main bodies of the APST and the Region, parliaments
and governments, one should consider the representation of the linguistic
groups living in the territory. This issue does not appear in the Basque system
and the knowledge of a given language is not a requirement for the composition
of the main bodies. In this sense, we cannot speak in the BAC of any kind of
cross-community guarantees.
Finally, with respect to the
representation of the autonomous territories in the state bodies, in both cases
the representation of the parliament is made through the MPs elected in the
respective territories. There is no participation of the autonomous entities in
the election of the members of the constitutional court in any case. For the
election of the head of state, APST participates through the representatives of
the region, while there is no chance for this in the Spanish case, which is
organised as a monarchy. As for a possible representation in the central
government, there is no provision in the Basque case, while in the case of APST, article 52 ATA foresees the presence of the president
of the province in the Council of ministers when the former is dealing with
questions affecting the autonomous province.
c)
Legal aspects
In both cases the basic laws
for the autonomous system are the Constitution and the respective Statutes of
autonomy. For APST, the Italian Constitution and Act on Autonomy date back to
1947 and 1972 respectively. For the BAC, the Spanish Constitution was adopted
in 1978, whereas the Statute is in force since 1979.
As for political rights, all
Spanish citizens living in any municipality of the BAC are legitimated to vote
in the Basque autonomous elections. Also are entitled to vote (and to be
elected) all Spanish citizens living abroad, whose last residence in the
Spanish state was located in any of the municipalities of the BAC, and their
descendants. Therefore, there is no requirement of residence period to achieve
the political rights in the Basque system. In APST and the Region of Trentino Alto-Adige, on the
contrary, there is a requirement of four years of uninterrupted residence to be
entitled to vote and be elected in regional and provincial polls, as
established in article 25 ATA.
In the field of linguistic
rights, ABC states, under article 6, that Basque and Spanish are both official
languages in the whole territory. Everybody has the right to use any of these
languages in private and public life. According to article 3 of the Spanish
Constitution, Spanish citizens have the obligation of knowing Spanish language,
but there is no obligation of knowing any other language of the state. The
official statute of the Basque language follows a territorial model. Basque is
also supposed to be official in some areas of Navarra.
In theory, any citizen is entitled to use any of the official languages in his
or her relations with any public administration, including the judicial power.
However, the socio-linguistic reality of the country avoids full implementation
of this provision. It must be said also that some public administrations,
especially those depending on the central government are very reluctant to
implement any measure to facilitate the incorporation of the Basque language
into the public relations sphere.
Article 99 of ATA states
that in the region German language is “parificata” with Italian. This clause could be considered as
a proclamation of the official status of the German language in the whole
region. However, this is not the interpretation commonly accepted. In general,
we can consider that German is an official language in the territorial sense in
the APST, while on the regional level, German-speaking
citizens of APST have the right to use the German language in their relations
with regional bodies (art 100 ATA). In this sense, the status of the German
language can be considered as official with a territorial meaning in APST and
with a personal meaning for the regional administrative level. Ladin language cannot be considered an official language
according to the statute. If there were a similar official status for the Ladin language, this would not spread over the valleys of Badia and
Finally, some words should
be said about the reform process foreseen for the statutes of BAC and Trentino-Alto Adige. In the first
case, the reform process is a quite complex one. In any case, the new text must
be passed by the central parliament and submitted to a referendum of the Basque
people. These requirements stress the contract characteristic of the statute
that we mentioned above. On the contrary, ATA must be reformed following the
process foreseen in the Constitution for constitutional laws (art 103 ATA).
This means that the region or the provinces have not a final decision-making
power on the shift of the text. In this sense,
d)
Self-government
and guarantees
As we mentioned before, BAC
and APST are two models of territorial autonomy within the framework of a
unitary state. In the scope of
In view of the level of
self-government included in the models hitherto studied, the BAC and APST share
the fact that the autonomous bodies have no power in terms of international
relations. International issues remain as the sole jurisdiction of the state
both in Spanish and Italian Constitutions. In other systems of territorial
autonomy, as the one of
The high level of self-government of the
BAC and the APST is reflected in a long list of legislative and executive powers
to be exercised by the community or provincial bodies. In both cases, this
degree of autonomy is complemented with an adequate provision of finance means
or resources, which can be considered itself as an important guarantee for the
autonomous functioning. Economic situation and legal provisions allow, in both
cases, a good amount of independence to the autonomous bodies in order to
develop their own policies. There is, however, a great difference in the way of
providing this financial autonomy. In the case of the APST, resources are
provided by the state according to some formula foreseen in the ATA (art 69-86). Most
of the revenues obtained by the state in the province remain within it for the
budget of the autonomous bodies. In the case of the Basque Country, however,
the autonomous system reflects the traditional tax independence of the
historical territories. In this sense, each Basque province or territory has
its own Treasury and is in charge of collecting the taxes from the citizens.
After the tax collection, the provinces provide the resources for the budget of
the Autonomous Community first, and then for that of the state for the power
exercised by this inside the BAC. In practice, this system allows in the
practice an independent (although co-ordinated) functioning of the Basque
Treasury with respect to the state one. In case the economic situation evolves
better in the BAC than in
As for the guarantees for self-government,
we find some differences between both systems. From the constitutional
perspective, Spanish Constitution recognises, under article 2, the right to
autonomy of the nationalities that make up the “Spanish nation”; but there is
no further provision for granting an autonomy for the
Basque Country. The map of autonomous communities is not drawn in the
Constitution and, in this sense, there is no specific
guarantee for providing autonomy for the Basque country as a whole. This
explains also the fact that Navarra constitutes an
autonomous community itself. On the contrary, in the Italian Constitution, it
is clearly specified which regions would be created and also if they would be
regions with special or ordinary statute (art 116 and 131). Another difference
in terms of guarantees appears in the international law scope.
Finally, possible conflicts
of powers between autonomous and central institutions are solved in a very
similar way in both cases. On the one hand, the constitutional court is the
competent body to know about the conflicts between autonomous and central
authorities. Autonomous and state laws can be taken out before the
constitutional court, and the latter can declare them to be unconstitutional.
However, we must remind here that the composition of the constitutional court
in the Spanish and Italian systems does not come from a balanced election between
state and regions or communities, as is the case in
4.- CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
The
comparative analysis of the realities of
Table
3: Similarities found between BAC and APST
a)
Territory and Society
·
Small percentage of State territory
·
Mountainous landscape
·
Part of North-South axis
·
Border land
·
Division between States of the historical territory
·
Administrative (provincial/regional) division of the
historical territory
·
Linguistic plurality
·
Catholic religious tradition
·
Migration flows
·
Higher income than the average of the state
·
Economy based on third sector
·
Good net of communications
b)
Politics and Conflict
·
Contradictory political aspirations
·
Nationalism as a social and political movement
·
Strong nationalist parties with a Christian-Democrat
ideology
·
Traditional support from the Catholic Church to
national identity
·
Non-native population supporting unionist parties
·
Majority support for nationalism
·
Constant electoral sociology
·
Fascist regimes in the past
c)
Legal Framework
·
Territorial autonomy
·
Some elements of asymmetry
·
Basic rules: constitution + statute
·
Parliamentary system
·
One chamber parliaments
·
Equal representation of provinces in regional/community
parliament
·
Internal distribution of political power in two
levels
·
No participation in the election of members of
constitutional court
·
Minority and state language are official languages
in the autonomous territory
·
High level of self-government
·
No powers on international relations
·
Good provision of finance autonomy
·
Conflicts of powers set up by constitutional court
·
State controls over autonomous entities
Table
4: Differences found between BAC and APST
a)
Territory and Society
·
Size of the respective territory: APST 14,000 km2 /
BAC 7,000 km2.
·
Sea cost in the Basque Country / interior land in
·
Controversial delimitation of the territory in the
Basque Country
·
Population in BAC five times bigger than in APST
·
Different linguistic communities in
·
Basque as a minority language in BAC / German as a
majority language in APST
b)
Politics and Conflict
·
Basque separatist nationalism / Tyrolean irredentist
nationalism
·
Basque as a internal conflict / Tyrolean
international conflict
·
·
Use of violence and human rights violations in the
Basque Country
·
Unsolved conflict in the BAC / settled conflict in
APST
·
High/low sensitiveness of the state population
c)
Legal Framework
·
Election of ministers: by the president in BAC / by
the parliament in APST.
·
In APST, compulsory representation of linguistic
groups in the main bodies
·
In APST, participation in the election of the head
of state
·
In APST, participation of president in the meeting
of the Council of ministers
·
4 years of residence to achieve political rights in
APST / none in BAC
·
Reform of the statute: requirement of referendum in
the BAC.
·
Tax law: autonomous power in the BAC
·
Constitutional guarantee for the Tyrolean autonomy
·
International guarantee for the Tyrolean autonomy
Table
5: Similarities and differences found between BAC and APST
Elements Similarities Differences
·
Territory and Society 18 12 6
·
Politics and Conflict 14 8 6
·
Legal Framework 23 14 9
·
TOTAL 55 34 21
From the
previous comparative analysis, the reader can get a broad picture of the
relation between the national identity conflict in the Basque Country and the
failure of the territorial autonomy arrangement in force. The existence of an
ongoing conflict shows that the system has not been able to solve in a peaceful
and generally accepted way the problem. The conflict does not arise so much in
a violent way (in spite of the dramatic consequences of the use of violence),
as it does politically between supporters and opponents to the right to
self-determination. This confrontation between political families or blocks,
reflecting different national identities, is also getting bigger, at least in
view of the political practice during the last period.
The use of violence by an
armed group like ETA, with little but significant support,
does not help at all in the search for a solution to the political problem. At
the same time, the response of the state in order to combat the violence is
sometimes done out of the rule of law, adding in this way some fuel to the
fire. Finally, violence is too often used as an excuse to deny the existence of
a political problem in the Basque Country, and to identify terrorism with any
kind of nationalism.
Therefore, given the current
political situation on the Basque Country, it is very difficult to give a
vision of future, since all possible scenarios show important problems to be
considered as stable. In this respect, we can foresee three possible future
evolutions of the status of this area: 1) The maintenance of actual status quo;
2) The creation of a higher level of self-government for the BAC inside the
The first one is the
proposal of the two main centralist parties (PP and PSOE)[15].
But keeping the actual status quo means presently to preserve the instability
of the region. Majority of people in the BAC is voting in favour of political
parties defending the right to self-determination, which is not recognised in
the legal framework. Political instability and confrontation affect
institutional relations between central and autonomous governments, creating
more and more practical problems in social and economic aspects. The process of
structuring the system of autonomous communities all over
A solution based on the
creation of a new framework of stronger self-government within the Spanish
state, would be the proposal of IU/EB and a significant sector of PNV. However,
there are many problems when it comes to implement this solution. The question
of the right to self-determination would remain in any case as the main
conflict to achieve such a solution. Besides that, there is not very much space
to create new powers for the autonomous institutions without taking them from
the basic core powers of the state. According to a broad reading of the Statute
in force, BAC has powers in almost all the aspects apart from Defence,
International Relations, Borders control, Citizenship,
Passports and Criminal Law. It would be very difficult to draw up a new system
without creating de facto an independent state. At the same time, this solution
would have to face the risk of not getting the support from both sides of the
political confrontation. In addition, for
The third possibility for
the future is independence, with the creation of a new Basque state. This is
the solution preferred by Batasuna, EA, and some
sectors of PNV, always through the democratic exercise of a right to
self-determination. The main problems for this solution, apart from the lack of
massive support at this particular moment, would be the territorial question.
In drafting the border of the new state, many Basques would be left out if Navarra were not part of the new state. In the other way
round, many non-Basque people would be included in the new state if Navarra were incorporated. A similar problem could arise
for the
In any case, the territorial
autonomy established through the statute of 1979 is nowadays in crisis. There
is no defined model for the future of the Basque Country and all possible
solutions appear equally unsatisfactory for a significant sector of the
population. The current model has helped to consolidate an autonomous system
that worked out reasonably well for around 15 years. However, at all moments,
an important political sector of the Basque Country has been excluded from this
consensus. This exclusion of a political share of 15-20% has created also the
political condition for the maintenance of a violent group alive. Today, disagreements
in the interpretation of the statute and in the political aspirations of
Spanish and Basque parties are taking the situation to a permanent
confrontation. Unless there is a kind of consensus on the idea of
self-determination to create a new system with the agreement of all the main
parties, it will remain difficult to achieve a lasting solution to the national
identity conflict in the Basque Country.
5.- ANNEX: SOME DATA ON BASQUE POLITICS
Table 6: Political forces in the Southern Basque Country
A) Political Forces in favour of the right to self-determination
·
EAJ-PNV: EUSKO ALDERDI JELTZALEA-PARTIDO NACIONALISTA VASCO ("Basque Nationalist Party"). Founded by Sabino Arana in
·
BATASUNA -
BATASUNA ("Unity") (former “Herri Batasuna” (popular unity) and “Euskal
Herritarrok” (Basque citizens)). It was founded in 1979 as an
extreme-left wing coalition of parties, although since then they have changed
in different occasions the name and internal composition. It has no clear
international links. They claim independence for the Basque Country as a whole.
They do not condemn the violence of the armed group ETA.,
of which they are considered a political branch. They get around 10-15% of the
votes in BAC and 8-12% in Navarra. Best results for
BAT take place in the Basque speaking areas of Gipuzkoa
and Navarra. They chair some municipalities in these
territories.
·
EA - EUSKO
ALKARTASUNA ("Basque Solidarity"). It is a centre-left wing party
founded in 1986, mainly as a split of the PNV. EA is in favour of independence
for the Basque Country. EA is a member of the European Free Alliance. It
normally gets around 7-10% of the votes in BAC and 4-5% in Navarra.
They get their best scores in the
·
EB-IU - EZKER BATUA-IZQUIERDA UNIDA ("United left"). It is a left wing
coalition of parties and political families. Some of them consider themselves
as Basque nationalists, while some others are Spanish parties as the Spanish
Communist Party. They support both the Spanish Constitution and the right to
self-determination of the Basque people. They refuse independence proposing a
federal system for the
B) Political forces against any right to
self-determination of the Basque People.
·
PP – PARTIDO
POPULAR (“Popular Party”).
It is a centre-right wing party, nowadays member of the
European Popular Party. Nowadays it gets around 18-24% of the votes in the BAC,
almost exclusively in the urban Spanish-speaking environments. They have only a
few majors in the Southern part of Alava and in one
of Vitoria-Gasteiz. In Navarra,
there is in fact a brother party called Unión del Pueblo
Navarro (“
·
PSOE - PARTIDO SOCIALISTA OBRERO
ESPANOL ("Spanish Worker's Socialist Party"). It is a centre-left wing party, founded in the 19th century and member
of the European Socialist Party. It gets around 18-20% of the votes in BAC and
25-30% in Navarra. Most of their votes come from the
Spanish speaking urban areas in which the immigrants from Spanish regions
actually live. Some municipalities in the metropolitan area of
Table 7: Dates of celebration of elections for the Basque Parliament
1st 1980 March
2nd 1984 February
3rd 1986 November[16]
4th 1990 October
5th 1994 October
6th 1998 October
7th 2001 May[17]
The Parliamentary period lasts for a maximum of
four years
Table
8: Evolution in the composition of the Basque Parliament (seats)
1980 1984 1986 1990 1994 1998 2001
EAJ-PNV 25 32 17 22 22 21 33
EA - - 13 9 8 6 *[18]
BAT[19] 11 11 13 13 11 14 7
EE[20] 6 6 9 6 - - -
IU-EB 1 0 0 0 6 2 3
PSOE 9 19 19 16 12 14 13
PP[21] 8 7 4 9 16 18 19
TOTAL seats 60 75 75 75 75 75 75
Table
9: Evolution in the composition of the Basque Parliament (seats)
1980 1984 1986 1990 1994 1998 2001
Forces A 43 49 52 50 47 43 43
Forces B 17 26 23 25 28 32 32
TOTAL seats 60 75 75 75 75 75 75
Table
10: Evolution of the composition of the Basque Government
Date Government parties President
1980 March PNV Mr.
Garaikoetxea
1984 February PNV Mr. Garaikoetxea
1984 December PNV Mr. Ardanza
1986 December PNV+PSOE
(+CDS) Mr. Ardanza
1990 December PNV+EA+EE Mr. Ardanza
1991 September PNV+PSOE+EE Mr. Ardanza
1994 November PNV+PSOE+EA Mr. Ardanza
1998 July PNV+EA Mr. Ardanza
1998 November PNV+EA Mr. Ibarretxe
1999 March PNV+EA (+BAT) Mr. Ibarretxe
2000 January PNV+EA Mr. Ibarretxe
2001 July PNV+EA+IU Mr. Ibarretxe
In brackets: support to the
government from the legislative
The president (Lehendakari) has always been a member of PNV.
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