Today, 31st July 2005, we are more of a nation than in 1885. Our language, which was on the retreat with a serious risk of being limited to the rural areas 110 years ago, now has new energy and the number of speakers increases daily. The Basque language and culture are gaining more social prestige daily and today they are a vehicle and product on the radio, television, in the press and on Internet. Our institutions are a reference for all Basque citizens and our level of self-government has allowed us to maintain and develop our identity contributing to the fact that we have a Basque society better educated and prepared than at any other time in our history.

We have a resourceful and dynamic Euskadi. This has allowed that unequal and unjust society of 1895, where a few made their fortunes while a great part of the population could not even reach the minimum levels of welfare, is today converted into one of the most developed societies with one of the greatest social balance in Europe and the world. That frontier that separated our people in 1895 and insisted on converting continental and peninsular Basques into foreigners from different worlds, has disappeared and today in 2005, our dynamism, work and drive mean that Iparralde and Hegoalde are now interweaving our economy, society, culture and ways of life. Summing up, creating a common society for all Basques.

Today we are more of a nation; we are nearer the objective established one hundred and ten years ago. Naturally, we must thank all those men and women who have made it possible. Many of them with indescribable suffering: wars, executions, exile, dictatorship, terrorism or extortion. Many others in their daily life – working on educative or formative projects. On a business project. Building a university, ikastola, corporation, technological centre, and a dance group, gau-eskola or starting up a town hall or some other institution. Working in the country, at sea or in industry. Transmitting language, culture and values to their children in the home. Laughing, living, transmitting hope. Suffering the ups and downs of life, crying, raising their heads again and continuing the journey.



Even so, when we open our eyes, even a little, we see that there is a lot of work ahead of us to continue building the Basque nation for the 21st century.

Therefore I am not appearing before you today to give a political meeting. There will be other occasions for them. Today is the day of Saint Ignatius, the 110th anniversary of the founding of our party and here, in Sabin Etxea, before all of you, publicly elected members of our party, representatives of our party members, I am not looking for applause or to make things sound good to my or your ears (or for you to have a good time). I have decided, above all, to speak of our commitment with the future of Euskadi; to share with you even if briefly, the key to the future of PNV, or rather, the PNV of the future. I think that the occasion, the moment and the audience merits it.

Project for a Basque Nation, pro-European and Modern.

Sabino and his followers were correct because they tied in with the modern ideas extending throughout Europe and the world. They understood the feelings of a people, of an identity that was being lost and they looked for a project so that this feeling could be converted into a collective hope. The project for a nation and in line with nationalist ideas extending throughout the Old Continent. Sabino asked himself the right questions and he found the answers. Agirre, Ajuriagerra, Landaburu, Irujo, Rezola and many others created a pro-European and modern Basque project. But the war, defeat and the interminable dictatorship damped down the geniality and the commitment of that unrepeatable generation.

The generation of ’77 led by Arzalluz, Ardanza, Garaikoetxea, Zubiri, Retolaza, Bujanda, Galdos, Robles, Ormaza, Gerenabarrena, Makua, Estabillo, Alkain, Unzueta and many others, knew how to focus the objectives of PNV and Basque nationalism in order to build a nation. The objective was institutionalisation, autonomy, industrial modernization, the European stake, social recovery and the public recognition of Euskera, the public mass media. The oxygen that this country needed to be able to live in moments when the long dictatorship, autarky and a sudden economic opening up which accompanied the political transition had placed Basque society on the edge of diluting its identity as well as economic breakdown.

Even today we have to analyse the environment and the world in which we live correctly. This means we have to ask ourselves the correct questions and seek sincerely the most efficient answers. The answers require commitment and effort to continue directing with the truth, without exaggeration or complexes and without condition, the building of our nation, of the new – and at the same time - age-old Euskadi of the 21st century. The project of a nation for a century of environmental challenges, intercontinental migratory movements, aging of the population, education without frontiers and without limits, international commitments of large corporations, networking, direct rivalry between people living in India, Europe, China and America offering their know-how and services through internet, with the disappearance of the classical European states and the definition of a new balance between unity and difference in a politically united Europe, the redefinition of the national languages in an international multi-lingual environment.


A Time of reflection, debate and contribution

An urgent issue for us, nationalists of EAJ-PNV is to reflect, debate and work on all this together. This is because the correct answers for successfully facing up to the challenges will be found and we will be able to apply them only in as far as all of us, each one within his specific responsibility assume our own social and political leadership for building the Basque nation of the 21st century in this historical crossroads in which Euskadi finds itself. As far as we can do this with the courage, serenity and intelligence which has always characterized the principal party, the Basque National Party, I am sure that we will solve all the problems and that we will continue building our Basque Nation.

Our mission, the work of the Basque National Party and the Euzkadi Buru Batzar is to exercise political leadership in Euskadi, with the complicity, political ability, drive and coordinated work of party members and all its representative organs:

) accepting and efficiently re-interpreting the thoughts of Sabino Arana after 110 years, and,
) gathering the legacy of our elders, who have preceded us on this long march, in this constant and lively challenge, because the living nations like Euskadi are dynamic.

Our party has endured and in the front line moments of crisis both in Euskadi and the rest of the world, it has taken strategic decisions at specific times, in many cases plagued by doubt. The legacy has been thoughts loaded with sense and responsibility for our people. A constant in our party texts is the objective of a Basque people able to express its will and to progress in accordance with its own personality, based on itself.

It is certainly a fine definition of the 21st century Basque Nation, a society able to express its will as an exercise of freedom and democracy, building itself dynamically at each moment of its history.

This is the main objective today in the year 2005 after having entered through the door of a new century and a new millennium at a dizzying speed. To open up the Basque Nation – really and physically – to the world, to a world wagering on wide open spaces, to a world where nations seek recognition and development, like Euskadi.

But the Basque Nation in the 21st century is more than this. It is, perhaps today more than ever, a nation which is also open to the interior of Euskadi, open to all the people who live, work, enjoy ourselves and suffer together.

Speaking of Values

Our idea of the Basque Nation has a number of values in its structure, values which give it a real meaning. When we speak about a Basque nation, of a society, which is building itself:



• We speak about a real, daily and efficient solidarity with persons and collectives who live excluded from progress, of people who are different. In the 21st century to build a nation is the best method of creating circles of solidarity, allowing the human being to break with his individualism creating a community and giving coverage to those who most need it, to those who do not have opportunities.

• We speak of coexistence, of the coexistence closely tied to the internal configuration of Basque society as a real exponent of the Basque nation. Only by means of citizen coexistence will we be able to control any social fracture due to the plurality of feelings and political identities of the Basque Nation. This plurality of feelings and identities is also part of our history, of our own identity as a people. The person who wants to uproot the plurality of Basque society is attacking our identity as a nation.

• We speak of the cohesion of Basque society understood as a basic criterion at the time of dealing with any basic agreement to overcome the political conflict. The cohesion of Basque society is a priority for us because there is no nation without a closely-knit society. Only those roads leading to the cohesion of society can be the bases for building the nation in the future.

• We speak of a progressive management of self-government, respecting the personal options of the citizens; and through the corresponding policies of positive action, protecting those collectives that are in a minority; working so that justice and welfare always go hand in hand and are at the service of all the people.

• We speak of education and formation of people as a political priority. To stake on a Basque nation in the 21st century is to give priority to the formation of all Basques. Nations only make sense if they are at the service of the people. And a vivacious and thriving nation will the one providing its citizens with the best tools for development in the 21st century: education and formation.

• We also speak of unifying differences regarding the linguistic situation. We love the variety of languages. We like differences but we reject inequalities. We must intensify our commitment to a better real equality between languages so that Basques wishing to live in Euskera can do so. We must take effective steps towards a real bilingual state of affairs, in a progressive way and respecting the will of the people, convinced that when there is a real effective bilingual situation, there will be more equality and cohesion. Euskera needs all of us but first it has to be used. Therefore we must keep it safe from any type of manipulation as well as indifference and, of course, any form of aggression. We must work so that it is effectively assumed by all as our cultural patrimony – of all Basques, above any type of difference.

• We speak of a collective mobilizing identity of the people making up Basque society, which allows us to incite the innovations and knowledge necessary for carrying out projects generating resources and welfare for the people.

• We speak of an attractive and tolerant identity that makes us proud to belong to a community and which attracts people who wish to come and share the future with us and who will enrich our nation, bringing their knowledge and who are going to be the Basques of the future. The nation of the future that prospers will be that which is attractive because of its identity, opportunities, cohesion, innovation, preparation and tolerance. Euskadi is a worthwhile collective task. And Euskadi must be a leading nation that triumphs in the 21st century.

This is our hope, our objective as nationalists, as a National Party of a humanist tradition.

And to do this well in the 21st century, to get a good understanding of the hopes of Basque society, its wishes – and why not – its dreams, we have to listen carefully to the citizenship. This is because the leaders – the leading parties – have to appeal to and interpret the society that they serve.

We have to be present in the spaces, in the environment, in the groups where our Basque social life is developed. We also have to observe carefully and evaluate our political actions on a systematic basis. To improve this, to continue impelling the construction of a Basque nation, to continue to consolidate our political and social leadership.

A plural society demanding long-term solutions and agreements.

A sincere reflection on the state of this new Basque society, the Basque society of the 21st century with regards to politics makes us think that we are before a mature society with a great deal of intuition. It is plural in feelings, identities and social sensitivities. It is a structured society with a good knowledge of its democratic rights and at the same time, aware of its hopes. A society which requires of its political representatives efficient work, te finding of solutions and to reach long-term agreements. And it does not make it easy for us. To accept this image of society means a political action with a capacity for:

a) …dealing with complex situations as the time has passed for gestures and initial scene setting;
b) …consider priorities and find answers and solutions;
c) …balance the different feelings and problems and to decide from a synthesis which is understandable for the citizenship;


And for all this and more, Basque society has place an unquestionable leadership on us, even though the majority is not sufficient for managing it.

And if we accept – and I accept it – that Basque society has acted with intelligence and maturity, we have to be capable of listening, without prejudice to what it is telling us and to answer while being aware of an adult audience.

With regards to the traditional analyses concerning the immobility of the electoral blocks in Euskadi, we have to be very careful and observe how Basque society is moving. We cannot ignore the more than probable transformation of the social-political behaviour of these blocks, at least with regards to the traditional perception. It is necessary to pay attention to the new social-political phenomena and the different Basque social-national projects and also of the extra-party social commitments of active sectors of Basque society. It is true that at present these factors have a scarce quantitative value compared to our size and political and social influence, but it obliges us to make our sociological readings much “finer” than usual.

To face up to this time of social change there is nothing better than to concentrate on what our values have been during these 110 years. In our own path and the historical praxis as a humanist, agreement-seeking and strongly compromised with the construction of the Basque nation with a vocation as a social-political guide of a country which is not only nationalist. That has been the secret of our invincibility up to the present time. In the capacity for being “the political expression of the Basque majorities”.

A political agreement permitting cohesion and integration

We have a vision for our nation. And a mission as a party. Today, the same as 110 years ago, we are firmly committed with this historical task: that Basque society can express its will and build itself on the basis of its personality, based upon itself. And this, in the year 2005 means obtaining the whole plurality of feelings, shades of meaning and identities, that is all the force which Basque society is and on that basis obtain a solid political agreement which will lay the foundations of our nation for the future. And that it can express its will by ratifying a political agreement binding our nation together, strengthening us and integrating us. Our united, cohesive and tolerant identity will be attractive for the people making up Basque society and they will be proud of it. And so that there will be people who want to come here from other places to share their lives, illusions and dreams with us. A nation that is open with an attractive identity for the 21st century. That is our dream. That is our horizon.

About the option dependence/independence, with the 19th century idea of our own nation-state, we clearly bet on being a nation open to the world in the 21st century, interdependence in Europe sharing sovereignty with Spain, France and Europe. Submitting to nobody and not imposing anything. That is really what we are talking about when we claim the right to decide united with the obligation of negotiating. That is what we are talking about when we assume the binomial “not to impose- not to impede”. That is what we are talking about when we bet on institutions guaranteeing national and social construction. That is also what we are talking about when we claim the Pact with the State.

A nation including all Basques, from Iparralde and Hegoalde. Against the imposed territorial unit, we defend an attractive national project which would be a democratic reference in the Autonomous Community of Euskadi, in Nafarroa and Iparralde. The Basques from the three political spaces of the Basque Country must see this as attractive, socially, economically, culturally and from the political point of view. An attractive identity and project is the key to obtaining a nation for all Basques to which end we have aspired legitimately and democratically over the past 110 years.

A suitable moment for a political initiative.

The men and women of the present Basque National Party are lucky to be living through a very suitable moment for consolidating this new time. A time full of opportunities for working out the bases of an agreement on the Basque nation and its development. Also for obtaining a society in peace with a definite rejection of the phantom of violence and intolerance amongst our people.

Today like yesterday, the Basque National Party is going to commit itself to this task. With political initiative. With capacity defining the the political objectives, procedures and work methods, together with the other parties. Seeking dialogue with other political formations and social agents on the basis of clarity and solidity in our principles and flexibility in the procedures.

EAJ-PNV is able to accept this challenge because all of us share the bases, the convictions which animate our political actions. We are also convinced that that the political challenges which we are living through now in Euskadi can only the adequately solved with different implications and degree of responsibility amongst all of us.

The integrating agreement is in our best tradition

We are ready for a special exercise of responsibility and flexibility, with clear convictions, negotiating talent diplomacy and humility because nobody, us included, has the magic formula nor should exclude others. We have a path ahead of us that we have to travel along full of illusion but being prudent because we have learned from our own mistakes and those of others.

The political priority for building the Nation today requires an ample political agreement. An agreement cementing the bases of a Basque nation with great cohesion, respecting what Basque society is today. Allowing it to build its pathway on the basis of the will of its citizens. That Basque society can express its will and build the future for themselves is what animates, nowadays also, our “route card”.

We, men and women of EAJ-PNV demand this policy rather than imposition, fanaticism, extreme conservatism and the lack of imagination. We are aware that politics is an instrument for pacification and returning to normality only when is is practised without dogmatism and closed schemes, disposed to reach integrating agreements which is in our best tradition.

That was the way it was 110 years ago, that is how it has been throughout our history and that is the way it will be with the commitment and work of all of us over the next few years also.

Gora Euskadi Askatutal ! (Long live a free Basque country).