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Introduction
- University of Nevada Press
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Es la realidad del País.”This is a statement I heard more than once when conducting research on Basque nationalism in the Basque Country. It conveys a sense of resignation about the deep polarization of Basque politics and society that has accompanied the expression of Basque nationalism in the democratic period. Basque nationalism questions with tremendous strength and pugnacity the legitimacy of the Spanish state’s rule in the Basque Country and the idea of a Spanish nation. This is most obvious in the politics of the radical stream of Basque nationalism whose flagship organization eta (Euskadi ta Askatasuna) was, until its declaration of a permanent cease-fire in March 2006, committed to using violence in an attempt to achieve the independence of the Basque Country. The moderate nationalists of the pnv (Partido Nacionalista Vasco) have challenged the Spanish state in their own way while staying clear of formally supporting political violence. The pnv has been consistent in claiming that the Basques have a right to self-determination. This right would suppose that the Basque population alone can decide if the Basque Country remains part of Spain, becomes independent, or adopts some other type of political status. In this spirit, Basque lehendakari Juan José Ibarretxe put forward a proposal for a “Statute of Free Association” between the Basque Country and Spain. The position of the central government toward Basque nationalism was uncompromising during the second mandate of the Partido Popular (pp) (2000–2004). After the 2000 elections, when it won an absolute majority in the Congress of Deputies, the pp took a hard line toward both radical and moderate Basque nationalists . It pursued a policing rather than a political strategy toward eta, whose violence it considered a form of criminality. For example, the pp supported 2002 and 2003 court orders to outlaw Batasuna, the radical nationalist party with close links with eta, and shut down the Basque-language daily Egunkaria. In reaction to the Ibarretxe proposal of a free association, the pp government made it illegal to hold referendums that could compromise the political and territorial integrity of Spain.1 Introduction Substate Nationalism, Historical Institutionalism, and the Basque Country “ The consequence of all these decisions was to aggravate the polarization between Basque nationalists, who typically seek more autonomy or independence for the Basque Country, and non-Basque nationalists, who defend the status quo.2 Between 2000 and 2004, the political climate in the Basque Country was the most volatile and tense it had been since the end of the dictatorship. The election of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (psoe) in the spring of 2004 improved the atmosphere, as the new socialist government stated it was open to a dialogue with the Basque government about political and institutional reform.3 eta’s declaration of a permanent cease-fire in 2006 opened up more opportunities for change. The contemporary political situation in the Basque Country is the product of a process, the development of Basque nationalism, that has been unfolding for a century but whose structural roots are much older. How did Basque nationalism emerge? How did it gain such significant popular support? Why does it feature a radical stream, which until recently tolerated violence? Why is contemporary Basque politics permeated by the national question? In other words, why is Basque politics to a large extent nationalist politics? These are questions guiding this book as it develops, in chapters 1–4, a historical institutionalist perspective on Basque nationalism. There is a considerable literature on Basque nationalism, some of which examines these types of questions. Authors have insisted on many different factors when analyzing Basque nationalism: culture, political economy, elite behavior, foral autonomy, state centralization, dictatorial rule, and others. This study does not have the pretension to invoke brand new explanatory factors for Basque nationalism; rather, it seeks to develop a historical state-centric perspective that considers the rise of nationalism in the Basque Country to be inextricably linked to the development of Spanish nationalism. The main argument is that Basque nationalism should be understood in relation to state- and nation-building in the Iberian Peninsula. The book suggests that Basque nationalism is the product of a historical trajectory that saw the Spanish state assume four different forms in its relation with the Basque provinces/Country: confederal-like (up to the nineteenth century); centralizing (in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries); authoritarian (the Primo de Rivera and Franco dictatorships); and democratic with the Estado de las Autonomías (since 1978...