Xabier Arzalluz pronounced these words in 1995. His intention was to explain how the Party should deal with he commemoration of the centenary of its foundation. I believe these words to be totally valid today. They are a magnificent way of symbolizing the umbilical cord that continues to joint us as patriots to Sabino Arana.

To be honest it is an enormous responsibility for me to have to talk before you here today, in this act commemorating the anniversary of the death of Sabino Arana. For many years we have met with many other party colleagues in Sukarrieta to remember him. Last year, however, we decided to transfer this act to Abando where he was born and that is why we are here today, in front of Sabin Etxea.

The militants and sympathizers of EAJ-PNV have always remembered the date of 25th November, we have not wanted to forget the date when Sabino Arana died. For the same reason the Sabino Arana Foundation has just published a work for its members with the title of “Bitxiak”. This is a work containing testimonies and unique and exceptional elements concerning the life of Sabino. One of these, authored by Jabier Landaburu, is an article dated 25th November 1931, because then like now the Basque National Party always had the date of the death of its founder in its memory. On that occasion the author, Member of Parliament for Alava in the Congress and later vice-Lehendakari in exile, published a moving article in the magazine “Euzkadi”.

Let me read you a paragraph of this moving article written on a day like today 73 years ago by Javier Landaburu in the magazine “Euzkadi”… “And a man emerged. Providential? By chance? The fact remains that a man emerged who for the first time felt many of the problems which his compatriots had not noticed.”

“The man passed on but his work remained. Today, those people are building their own life and they hope to obtain it in the not too distant future. They will obtain this goal because they have the right to it but also, and this is very important, because they want to have their own life and are capable of supporting it. What was the wish of an individual is now the desire of nearly everybody; tomorrow this will be the firm wish of all the people”.

Today, nearly three quarters of a century later, on a day like today, we continue asserting that this people is building its own future and will get it. First, because we are a nation. A nation made up by the “Herrialdes” of Xuberoa, Baxenabarra, Lapurdi, Gipuzkoa, Araba, Bizkaia and Navarra. Secondly, because nations have the right to their own construction, respecting the free will of the citizens. And, thirdly, because this country has the firm will to obtain its own future.

Today I would like to recall the main ideas-strong points that Sabino Arana handed down to us. The first that makes us patriots: Euskadi is a nation.

Once more I wish to proclaim, here and now, that the main objective of this Party is the construction and recognition of the Basque nation: of a nation extending from the Ebro to the Aldur and from Zuberoa to the Encartaciones. Of course Sabina Arana was not the first patriot because Larramendi, Augustin Xaho and others were moving around the same idea, but Sabino Arana was the first to convert the patriotic ideology into an instrument which would give the Basque people a political structure. It was Sabino Arana who proclaimed for the first time “Euzkadi Euzkotarren Aberria da” (Euzkadi is the nation of the Basques). He was the pioneer in placing a political project and a party structure at the service of the Basque national consciousness. In short, Sabino Arana was the first to institutionalise Basque politics, proposing a modern political model necessary for the formation of what would be organizations of and for Basque society.

There is a lot of the revolutionary in Sabino. He subverts the power structures of the State and he openly opposes the positions of domination that the centralist institutions intend whether these are political, social, cultural or intellectual. Facing up to the centralist “order and command”, he proposes a closer political participation, more horizontal, more democratic. And, all this happened 110 years ago.

The second idea-strongpoint of Sabino was his humanism and his relationship with the modern currents of his time. He links up with the European nationalist movements at the end of the 19th century. He applies in Euskadi the principle of nationalities in fashion in Europe. But he does not stop with his Basque nationalism, as he is one of the first nationalists to practice international solidarity.

The letters he wrote to Kizkitza are wonderful. Arana reflects on the need to collaborate with the incipient Catalan and Gallego nationalisms and even those of Aragon and Valencia. He is a strong defender of minorities, a bitter critic of slavery, he unpityingly attacks European colonialism, and while all of Europe is divided on whether the South African population should be controlled by the Dutch Boers or the British, Sabino claims the rights of the Zulus to their own land. He is accused of being a racist but his contemporaries do not accept the comparison with Sabino’s humanism. Who accuse him of being racist? The followers of Canovas del Castillo who, at that time defended slavery in Cuba or who wrote about the inferiority of the Africans?

Unamuno defined him well when he said: “In this dismal Madrid where the loudmouth class include all the Spanish misunderstanding, they took him either taken as a joke or furiously; they scorned him without knowing him or they insulted him. None of the unseemly tabloids written about him had any idea of his work and even less of his spirit”.

Here is the third key to Sabino’s work: he was a tireless activist and agitator. It is sufficient to remember that that the man, who died when he was only 38 years old, had been capable of starting up a patriotic ideology, giving a name and a flag to his nation – Euskadi and Ikurriña – he was able to found and organize the first patriotic party, the Basque National Party, providing it with a network of batzokis; he promoted an academy of the Basque language; he wrote uncountable works about history, language and culture and apart from creating half a dozen magazines he was the promoter of a daily newspaper. We should not forget the nomenclature of Basque names thanks to which nowadays it is perfectly common and normal to hear hundreds of names in Basque. All the Josu, Jon, Nekane, Jaione, Edurne, Miren, Maite, Garbiñe, Gaizka, Gorka, Iñaki and many more owe our names to the prolific work of Sabino.

Aita Villasante who was president of Euskaltzaindia stated accurately: “Sabino Arana was, above all, enthused by an enormous willpower, of an energy which has survived over the years, and he shocked the conscience of his People as nobody else had done before. His influence is such that it does not decrease among his followers or among his detractors”.

But the best thing about Sabino is, without any doubt, his influence over those who have declared themselves to be his followers. Unwavering “sabinianos” who adored Arana. “The Master” for those first generations of patriots and who for decades have been key players in the democratic fight for Basque self government, in recovering the language and their own identity which appeared to be on the way to disappearing at the end of the 19th century.

“Sabinianos” such as the following and just to mention a few. “Xabier de Lizardi”, Esteban de Urkiaga “Lauaxeta”, Jose Antonio de Agirre, Juan de Ajuriagerra, Jesús Maria Leizaola, Manuel Irujo, Xabier de Landaburu, Joseba Rezola, Jesús de Galíndez, Joseba Elosegi, Koldo Mitxelena, Elvira Zipitria or Jesús Insausti “Uzturre”. The example of his followers in their lives is the real inheritance of Sabino Arana.

Poets, like Lizardi, who elevated the social prestige of that dying language. “Lauaxeta” who on the point of being shot by those who had rebelled against the legal government, knew how to pardon them and thereby converting himself into a symbol of the historic legitimacy that would sprout decades later.

Democrats and patriots like those young people of the Aguirre generation who were the forerunners of the most progressive Christian democracy and who were able to sense the ideal of a united Europe and the importance of staking for Europe. Even though the European project had deficiencies. As Manuel de Irujo wrote: “The Basques have in their mind and their heart the Europe of the Peoples. What arose was not the Europe of the Peoples but, rather, the Europe of the States. For Aguirre and his collaborators the dilemma set before them was not one Europe or another, but that of the Europe of the States or nothing. And they accepted the Europe of the States”.

These words are by Irujo. We should take them into consideration now more than ever because the Europe, which is slowly being built, step by step, is the place where the Basques, a small nationality, have to share our home with other nations. We cannot stand apart from this process. And each step, however small it is, means more Europe and less Spain and France. We need a Europe that advances in its construction so that Euskadi can obtain its future union between Iparralde and Hegoalde.

The “sabinianos” of that generation did not waver at the moment of fighting for liberty and democracy in the war of 1936 when they had to face up to fascism. They had no doubt about the path to follow and that is a reason why they took part in the allied information networks and that is also why they formed the Gernika Battalion which fought against the Nazis in the Second World War. Therefore, those people who called the Basque soldiers “disciples of mad racists” those “Sabinianos” who fought against Hitler and for freedom.

One of those “Sabinianos” was Leizaola, that man who in our innermost conscience was the Old Lehendakari. I do not forget Juan Ajuriagerra, respected and admired both in times of prison and in the resistance, nor the impression that Irujo provoked in younger generations with his moving slogan “Batasuna ta Indarra” when he came back from exile. I cannot forget Rezola from Ordizia either, a light by our side during the long decades of opposing the Franco regime, or the Europeism of Landaburu and his great work “The Cause of the Basque People” which we grew up with and used to form many patriots; later we also read “I Want to Die for Something” the testimony of Joseba Elosegi and ours was the path which the linguist Koldo Mitxelena had laid down for the normalization of the Basque language.

An intellectual like Jesus de Galindez who was made to “disappear” in the far-off Caribbean for denouncing another dictatorship. Men and women, like Elbira Zipitria, who were capable of starting up the Ikastola movement during Franco’s regime. Exiles, like Garbiñe Urresti, who kept the flame alight during that interminable period… Members of the resistance like our good friends Gerardo Bujanda, Luis Mari Retolaza, Joseba Leizaola and Jokin Intza or the prematurely disappeared Jokin Intxausti. They resisted an oppressive regime and never fell to the temptation of violence and who gave everything for their ideas in exchange of nothing. There is therefore an interminable list: Arzelus, Lasarte, Artetxe, Solaun, Arredondo, Isasi, Durañona, Barriola, Primi Abad, Ander Barrutia, who died two months ago, Azurza…

Men and women, some anonymous and others well known, but all of them recognized, loved and admired by the generations which are now trying to follow their example in EAJ-PNV. This is the legacy of Sabino Arana. These are his assets. Generosity, selflessness, humanism, Europeism, patriotism. These are the values defended by the “Sabinianos”.


To end I would like to remember a Sabiniano. A man that I admired. Eleven years have passed since the death of one of the firmest disciples of Arana: Jesus Insausti “Uzturre”. A person who helped me, guided me and advised me in political, institutional and human matters and who I remembered and read a lot during my period as a Euro-parliamentarian in his beloved Brussels – the heart of the European Union, where he left an unforgettable memories and where he left so many open doors for our Party and, in general, for all of our country.

Throughout the life of “Uzturre” there was a perfect summing-up of the spirit of a patriot. Our admired Jesus was a gudari (soldier), a member of the resistance, union leader, defender of human rights in Euskadi and many oppressed peoples in eastern Europe and the Third World, a Basque speaker, active publicist and journalist, patriot…The unforgettable president of the Euzkadi Buru Batzar and the Sabino Arana Foundation. He symbolizes more than most the radical democratic character of the Basque nationalism of EAJ-PNV.

On 25th November 1988, in another anniversary like this one, Uzturre wrote a magnificent article entitled “Sabino Arana, that man who was pure poetry”.
“More than once –wrote Uzturre- I have been asked ‘what would Sabino Arana think and say today’. This is a question without an answer. What we can do and we will not tire of saying so is that Sabino Arana embraced with a penetrating vision the reality of Euzkadi, of the Euzkadi of his times and the world of his times where imperialism and colonialism could be seen: including the reality of a country without a national conscience with all its negative implications. The reality of Euzkadi as a prisoner and victim of a savage and insatiable social injustice”.

Jesus insisted on the importance that Arana had fixed a clear goal: “Euzkadi is the Motherland of the Basques”. Jesus used to repeat Sabinian phrases that had formed his social conscience and his anti-imperialism such as that which stated “murder and robbery are the two columns on which the nations build their power; with murder they found their domination: with robbery their colonies”.

That is just the political line that we have defended and reclaimed as ours over these last few decades. “Clarity in the goals and pragmatism in the everyday work of politics and in the management of the institutions always from the project of an open national construction, capable of bringing together the greatest number of people possible in this work”. These were, in my opinion the keys to the pacific praxis of Sabino Arana. In the hard days of the dictatorship the Lehendakari Jose Antonio Agirre rose up as one of the clearest representatives of this vision and this year when we celebrate the centenary of his birth I would like to recall his name and his work as to a certain extent it is thanks to him that we are here. We owe a debt to his personality and capacity the permanence and vigour of our project.

Under the dictatorship when our historical memory ran the risk of disappearing, Agirre and those of his generation firmly maintained some principles but they also knew how to bring them together with a very necessary pragmatism and the result is that thanks to his activity in the international field, the dictatorship was not able to break the chain of our history.

Building our nation as a future project day by day, each and every one of the days, from the institutions, from the Party and from civil society. Wagering for an open and tolerant Basque nation. Firmly compromised in the defence of human rights and freedom for all people. Convinced of a Europeism that will come step by step, sometimes more slowly than we would like, weakening the classical nation-states, weakening frontiers and opening the way for a united Basque nation in a common Europe.

We are aware of the difficulties but also full of hope for the times to come. Aware that the success for the proposal for a New Political Statute depends on finding firm alliances with the social sectors which, from the rejection of violence, believe in the capacity of the Basque people to decide their own future. In this task the example of the disciples of Sabino Arana will be a necessary reference. I think this is the true legacy of the founder of the Basque National Party. I want to finish with our esteemed Uzturre.

“Arana y Goiri – wrote Uzturre –was the creator of the national conscience. It is obligatory that the political organization which he set up should celebrate his memory, but as Basques and democrats we are obliged to attempt that the figure of Sabino Arana y Goiri is affirmed with the significance corresponding to him, in the same way as Marti y Rizal, Bolivar and San Martin, Washington and Joan of Arc, Masaryk and Gandhi, who hold a very special place within their respective countries”.

Bilbao, 28th November 2004