We are doing it on a special day as on this same day, 23 years ago, we lived a moment of aggression against democracy. Fortunately the “coup d’état” failed but from that moment on there was a long stage of political involution which we would like to remark on here, in Gernika, the town which is the symbol of Basque self-government.

Basic consensus was broken for coexistence between the nations and peoples making up the State. These were agreements of political balance, which, in good measure had made possible the setting up of constitutional framework of liberties that promised a new period of democracy within the Spanish State.

Gernika is the symbol of Basque self-government. The Statute of Gernika was the result of the longing for self-government of the Basque people and emerged as a result of the impulse of Basque society. The theoretical origin of the Statute of Gernika was a pact between Basque society and the Spanish state. It was an adequate solution for that historical moment. The Statute included – and continues to include – a reserve of rights within the additional disposition, which states literally “The acceptance of the regime of autonomy that is established in this Statute, does not imply any renunciation on the part of the Basque People to the rights which might correspond to it in virtue of its history, which can be brought up to date in accordance with that established in the juridical ordering”. The support of ample sectors of Basque society to the Statute of Gernika rested upon this basic consideration. On the other hand the most intransigent centralist sectors also rejected it for this same reason. Their monolithic idea of the unity of Spain could not tolerate the creation of an open and democratic framework which would allow Euskadi to start on the path to self-government that was not limited by clear, specific limits, sufficiently controlled by the central power of the State.

Twenty-five years on, important parts of the Statute have not been fulfilled. Competencies credited to Euskadi continue to be principles that have not been provided with any real substance. The numerous specific previsions have been ignored or meticulously filed down by means of basic legislature to fit them in to a model of territorial organization that has little to do with the pact of October 1979.

The freshness, the spontaneity and the force of the Statute of Gernika have been trapped in the narrow tangle of a rigid, uniform framework designed by the State and backed by the Constitutional Tribunal with the idea, not only bureaucratic but also political, of setting up a symmetrical and ordered model of territorial organization.


Together with the non-compliance of a framework for self-government, the mechanisms for development and adaptation of which have been rendered useless, there has been the addition of a pseudo-development subjected to a perverse process and consisting in placing a political price to the transfer of attributes while at the same time attacking the levels of self-government already legally accepted and endorsed in the elections. This obliges us to revise, and to go for renewing the agreements about the path to be followed. It is the moment for dealing with the problem of normalizing Basque society, of definitely closing the transition of 1978 which articulated a framework of understanding and coexistence in Spanish society, but which has not solved the articulation of a space for understanding between Basque society and the Spanish State.

Coinciding with the 24th anniversary of the Statute of Gernika, the proposal for a New Political Statute, approved by the Basque Government on 25th October 2003 and presented for debate in the parliament, is an invitation for coexistence. The intention is to renew a pact, between Euskadi and the State, in order to reach a political solution concerning the fitting of Euskadi in the State starting from the acceptance of the multi-nationality of the same, a concept dealt with in the text of the constitution but not developed at any time.

The New Political Statute deals with the construction of a civic Basque nation. A nation of citizens. A nation made up of all of us who live here with independence of whether we were born in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basauri, in Aretxabaleta, in Calatayud, in Barco de Avila or in Senegal. Where everybody will have the same civil and political rights and where all citizens are nationals just because they are. A project in which the main nexus between every person living in Euskadi is not the link concerning where we come from but where we want to go. A society where above all the rights given by history, the future is built upon the will of the citizens who share a project for building a common future for coexistence. To sum up, a civic nation of free citizens sharing the present and who wish to build the future together and where we have the right to express our will freely and on this basis to build our political status.

This is the nucleus of the New Political Statute that we propose. A proposal, which, although the political apparatus of Aznar have defined it as secessionist, looks for nothing more than the coexistence of Basque society with the State. Through the renovation o a pact that we wish to claim here in Gernika, a town symbolizing the pact of the Basque people with the State with respect for our own self-government. This has been called illegitimate but its legitimacy is based on the desire of Basque society and its legality on the capacity that article 46 of the Statute of Gernika gives to the Basque government for presenting a text for reforming the self-government. From the idea of a pact, the new Political Statute develops a modern and progressive proposal, respecting the will of the citizens and which includes advanced formulas so that the constitutions and texts serve for solving problems and not for restraining the will of the societies.

The proposal for the new Political Statute attempts to deal with the coexistence between Euskadi and the State with these parameters. With 21st century solutions to problems which have been encysted from the beginning of the 19th century or even before. Today, here, I want to underline our willingness to find a way to solve the problem of normalizing Basque society and which would allow a friendly relationship, of affect and coexistence between Euskadi and the Spanish state. Only mutual respect, dialogue, debate and respect for the will of the citizens can be the tools for reaching this objective.

An objective which must be reached and endorsed by the citizens freely in a society at peace. Violence, terror, blackmail, extortion and threat are scourges that require zero tolerance in our society. There is no free nation without free citizens. In this town, symbol of liberties and peace, I want to underline that what has priority is to uproot, once and for all, ETA violence in the Basque society, because ETA, apart from generating pain and suffering, is the greatest obstacle that we Basques have for deciding our future in peace and freedom.

And we will obtain this. Because our future must be built only attending to the will of the people and there is no way that we can allow that our future be decided by violent people who do not represent anybody and whose only contribution to Basque society is a final, definitive disappearance.

But, not only the Basque self-government is a victim of the political involution lived and practiced with more or less responsibility by the two main governing parties in Spain all through this period.

In the last few years, under the umbrella of the absolute majority of the Popular Party and the tagging along of the Socialist Party, throughout the Spanish state there has been a basic worsening in the general framework of civil rights.

The standardization of ideas; the use of the three powers of the State in a common strategy of political orientation; the use of the parliamentary majority to modify surreptitiously high range standards, penalizing democratic conducts such as the use of popular consultations; and the orchestration of the instruments of Justice to invade the jurisdiction of other powers – the case of the Basque Parliament -; the arbitrary transfer of magistrates in order to obtain a certain doctrinal orientation or the refusal of dialogue as a differentiating feature institutional democratic behaviour are some of the very serious authoritarian behaviours of the recent period we have suffered.

Basic rights have been violated on many occasions such as those of freedom of expression, public meetings, opinion or political freedom. The guaranteeing concept of the State of law has been eliminated at the stroke of a pen, eliminating the presumption of innocence. Newspapers have been closed, political parties have been illegalised, part of the citizenship has not been able to vote and the fight against terrorism has been converted into a party tool.

These last few years of the authoritarian government of Jose Maria Aznar and the Popular Party have placed us, as far as liberties are concerned, in a pre-constitutional position.

And especially in Euskadi, this shrinking of democracy has been felt even more strongly at all levels of our daily life. In culture, with attacks against Euskera and our educational system reminding us of past times. In politics with a constant Satanizing of all democratic nationalist approach. With regards to the institutions, through the blocking of all representative spheres of the Basque society. Even more serious in social coexistence. With a strategy defined to cause confrontation, tension and rupture.

In this situation of cutting back of the liberties that we are suffering, the Basque National Party cannot forget the continuing activities of ETA and its destructive contribution to this situation of regression. The only thing ETA contributes to Euskadi is suffering, desolation, ruin and moral degradation. Furthermore, ETA feeds the regressive strategy of the Popular Party and always acts on the side of destruction.

We have a new election before us where to an important degree we will see a worsening of this non-declared State of Exception or otherwise the gaining of new spaces of freedom and coexistence. Therefore we are banking on a strong presence in Madrid allowing us to promote the democratic regeneration and freedom that EAJ-PNV defends.

Some with their nauseous and immoral proclamations have clearly bet on reliving a past threatening to destroy the hope of peace and freedom of all the Basque people.

Our alternative, the alternative of the Basque National Party, today the same as yesterday, is for respect of liberty, respect for all ideas and the will of Basque society.

Against ideological uniformity we want MORE FREEDOM.
Against imposition, MORE RESPECT AND TOLERANCE.
Against authoritarianism, MORE DIALOGUE.
Against the new threats, MORE DEMOCRACY.
Against breaking off, MORE AGREEMENT.
Against confrontation, MORE COEXISTENCE.
Against a return to the past, we want MORE FUTURE, MORE SOCIETY, MORE FOR THE PEOPLE, MORE DECISION, MORE PARTICIPATION, summing up, EUSKADI built by all of us, for everybody, in a free and united manner.

This is the commitment of the men and women of the Basque National Party. It has always been this way and it will continue to be this way. We will defend the rights and freedom of all citizens of this country and, under the tree of Gernika, we solemnly proclaim that we promise to lead a democratic regeneration and a pact for coexistence and self-government allowing us to build a free nation of free citizens. A nation basically joining our will to share a better future and, that the same can be freely expressed.

Gora Euskadi askatuta! (Long live a free Euskadi)

Gernika 23rd February 2004.