Basque Country

V

Government

Established in 1980, the Basque Country’s regional government, known as the Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco (CAPV; Spanish for “Autonomous Community of the Basque Country”), consists of a president whose office is in Vitoria and a 75-member unicameral legislative assembly that convenes in Guernica. Members of the assembly are elected by voters age 18 and older. The assembly chooses the president from among its members. The laws of the CAPV are based on traditional Basque laws, called fueros, which establish a high level of democratic self-rule.

VI

History

A

Early History

For the history of the Basque people, which also includes the history of Basques living in adjacent regions of France and Navarra, See Basques.

The first mention of the Basques in written history was during the 1st century bc, when the Romans penetrated Álava in their conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa, however, resisted outside forces and remained isolated for several centuries. Catholicism began making inroads between the 3rd and 5th centuries ad, and by the 10th century most Basques were devout Catholics.

In the 11th century, powerful nobles established a commercial association between the region and Castile, a Spanish kingdom, because Castile wanted to use Basque ports. By the 13th century, Castile was attempting to incorporate all of the Iberian Peninsula under its rule. Basque and Castile representatives met in Guernica under an oak tree to pass laws and approve extensive personal rights for the Basques. These laws became the basis of the fueros, or traditional laws. The oak tree, known as the Guernikako arbola, became a symbol of Basque self-rule. (The tree was destroyed in the 1800s, but the symbol survives today in a tree grown from an acorn said to be from the original oak.)

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In the 16th century, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, of Guipúzcoa Province, founded the Jesuits, a Roman Catholic religious order of men. Loyola attracted many Basques to the order, further intensifying the region’s Roman Catholic affiliation.

Population growth created increased demand for land during the 18th century. Land prices rose and many baserritarrak (Basque for “family farmsteads”) had to be sold when the etxekojaun (the customary heir; Basque for “eldest son”) could not pay his siblings for his inheritance as required by custom. Since farmsteads were linked to others of the area in a cooperative social organization known as an auroa, rural Basque life disintegrated and many Basques emigrated.

B

Wars

French armies under Napoleon I invaded northern Spain in the late 18th century and occupied the Basque Country region during the Peninsular War (1808-1814). This occupation, and concern about losing control over local affairs, propelled the Basques into two wars in the 1830s and 1870s. In both wars, Basques sided with the Carlists, a conservative group led by Don Carlos de Borbón, who advocated a continuation of traditional Bourbon succession, a traditional interpretation of Roman Catholicism, and recognition of the fueros. Both wars were lost to the Spanish liberals.

Later in the century, however, a powerful Basque movement led by Sabino de Arana y Goiri developed. After Arana’s death, this group obtained brief autonomy for the region during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Nationalist forces led by Francisco Franco soon launched a campaign to control the Basque Country, destroying the town of Guernica with the aid of German bombs. Franco’s forces won the civil war in 1939. His authoritarian regime prohibited the use of the Basque language or expressions of Basque culture.

C

ETA

In 1959 the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA; Basque for “Basque Homeland and Liberty”) began demanding that the Basque Country be allowed to secede from Spain and form an independent state that would include the Basque regions of Navarra and France; they also began to practice terrorism. Franco’s death in 1975 and the succession of Juan Carlos I set the stage for democratic reform. A new national constitution in 1978 included provisions for regional autonomy, allowing the Basque Country to achieve home rule and recognition of their language. However, Basque separatists continued to resent any ties to Spain, resulting in violence on all sides.

In July 1997 the ETA kidnapped Miguel Angel Blanco, a young town councilor who was a member of Spain’s ruling political party. The ETA demanded that all Basque prisoners in Spanish prisons be transferred to the Basque Country. When the government did not meet the demand, an ETA gunman killed Angel Blanco, prompting millions of people throughout Spain to march in protest against the ETA’s violent tactics. In October a Spanish policeman was killed as he foiled an ETA attempt to plant grenades at the new Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. In early December, 23 leaders of Herri Batasuna, the political party affiliated with the ETA, were sentenced to seven years in prison for collaborating with the terrorists by showing ETA members in a campaign video. The sentences prompted more ETA assassinations, which continued in 1998.

Movement toward a peace agreement between the ETA and the Spanish government prompted cautious optimism in September 1998 when the ETA announced a unilateral cease-fire. Although many leaders in the Spanish government were skeptical of the ETA’s motives, most Spaniards encouraged talks for peace. In December, Prime Minister José María Aznar authorized the transfer of 21 ETA prisoners from prisons in the Balearic and Canary Islands, as well as in Spanish enclaves in North Africa, to the Spanish mainland. The transfers were a conciliatory move, but the ETA continued to demand the transfer of more than 500 additional prisoners closer to the Basque Country.

Tensions flared again in early 1999, when Spanish and French authorities arrested around 20 suspected ETA members and raided Herri Batasuna headquarters in San Sebastián. In May the Spanish government held its first talks with the ETA, but when nothing resulted from the talks, the ETA abandoned its cease-fire in December.

The ETA resumed its terrorist campaign in 2000, killing more than 20 people. The ETA almost always claims responsibility for its attacks. Spanish police arrested dozens of suspected ETA members, including its alleged military commander, in September. The following month ETA retaliated with a car bombing that killed a Supreme Court justice.

Regional elections in 2001 returned the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) to power in the 75-seat legislative assembly. The elections were viewed as a victory for Basque regional president Juan José Ibarretxe. The PNV seeks greater regional autonomy and self-determination for the Basque region. The biggest loser in the election was Batasuna, a political organization that succeeded Herri Batasuna. Voters apparently punished Batasuna for the ETA’s resumption of violence. ETA terrorist attacks declined from 2000 but were still responsible for the deaths of about 13 people in 2001.

In 2002 Spain’s majority parties, the Popular Party and the Socialist Workers’ Party, joined forces to outlaw Batasuna by passing legislation in June that enabled the Supreme Court to ban any organization advocating violence. A Spanish magistrate also used existing antiterrorist legislation to suspend the organization from political activity for three years. Both measures were unpopular in Basque Country, despite the meager representation of Batasuna in the regional parliament. The regional government challenged both actions in the courts. ETA claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks that killed five people in 2002.

The Supreme Court, however, imposed an immediate and permanent ban on Batasuna in March 2003, ruling that the organization supported the ETA, a charge that Batasuna denied. Spanish police also raided and shut down a Basque-language newspaper, charging that it was an organ of the ETA. The editor of the newspaper and three other staff members said they were tortured while under detention, a claim denied by Spain’s interior minister. The government crackdown on the ETA continued in 2003 as Spain arrested 125 alleged ETA members, and neighboring French police arrested 46 others, including reputed leaders. Only three people were killed in ETA attacks in 2003.

The ETA again became a focus of Spain’s politicians in 2004 when the worst terrorist attack in Spain’s history killed 192 people and injured about 1,500 people on March 11 in Madrid. Spain’s interior minister immediately blamed the ETA for the attack, but the charge rebounded against the ruling Popular Party after Spanish authorities discovered evidence pointing to al-Qaeda rather than the ETA. In parliamentary elections four days after the attack, Spanish voters ousted the Popular Party and replaced it with the Socialist Workers’ Party.

In March 2006 the ETA announced a permanent cease-fire. The group pledged to use the political process rather than violence to achieve its goal of Basque independence. However, in December 2006 the ETA set off a car bomb at the Madrid airport, killing two people. In response Spain’s Socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, called off negotiations with the ETA. Despite the bombing, the ETA insisted that its cease-fire was still in effect. In May 2007 Batasuna entered municipal elections but did poorly. Then in June the ETA announced that it was ending its cease-fire and resuming its violent struggle for independence. Zapatero vowed to crack down on the group.

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