Terrorism and nationalist conflict: The weakness of democracy in the Basque Country

The Politics of Contemporary Spain

Volumn , Issue , 2004, Pages 81-105

  Mata, José Manuel ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY UPV EHU   (Spain)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 84870020859     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.4324/9780203002759     Document Type: Chapter

References (50)

1. For example, G. Jaúregui, Entre la tragedia y la esperanza (Barcelona: Ariel, 1996), p. 139.
2. M. Bilbao, Consensos y conflictos ante el Estatuto de Autonomía (Onate: IVAP, 1992), p. 189 and passim.
3. Another key element in this dissension is based on the erroneous interpretation that the Basques rejected the Constitution. This argument is based on the fact that only 31 per cent of the Basque electorate voted in favour of the Constitution. Some commentators have gone as far as to deny the evidence of the approval of the referendum for the Statute. For a rigorous analysis of the constitutional referendum results see F. Dominguez, De la negociación a la tregua iEl final de ETA? (Madrid: Taurus, 1998), p. 28 and passim.
4. J. Corcuera, Política y derecho: La construcción de la autonomía vasca (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales, 1991), p. 309 and passim.
5. For the PNV see 'Ponencia politica del PNV de enero del 2000';
6. 'Concreción de la ponencia politica: Reconocimiento del ser para decidir 2000'; 'Ilusión por hacer, nota de prensa del EBB de 2003'; 'De la ofensiva electoral a la guerra politico judicial, EBB 2003'.
7. For Ibarretxe see 'Konponbideak-una iniciativa para la convivencia. 2002-2003'. All documents at wwww.eaj-pnv.com and www.elcorreodigital.com.
8. El Correo, 25 October 2000, p. 21 and DEIA, 20 October 2000, p.12.
9. Another key discursive element is the conception of the Statute as a constitution 'granted' by Spain. This view is supported by radical nationalists close to ETA and some very influential sectors of the PNV and the EA. The view of one ETA leader in the 1990s on this subject is illuminating see E. Etxebeste, Veinte anos después (Bilbao: Argitaletxe-Iru, 1994), p. 30 and passim.
10. M. Oniandia, 'Entrevista', El Correo, 28 June 1994, p. 12.
11. See also M. Oniandia, Guía para orientarse en el laberinto vasco (Madrid: Temas de Hoy, 2000).
12. See G. Shabad et al., El sistema de partidos políticos en Espana. Génesis y evolución (Madrid: CIS, 1986);
13. J. J. Linz, Conflicto en Euskadi (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1986); and
14. F. J. Llera, The Construction of the Basque Polarized Nationalism (Barcelona: ICPS Working Papers, no. 64, 1993).
15. For an analysis of the Constitution's First Additional Disposition, related to the foralidad, see J. Garcia Roca, 'Espana asimétrica. Descentralización, territorial y asimetrias autonómicas: una especulación teórica (1)', in Asimetría y cohesión en el estado autonómico (Madrid: MAP, 1997), pp. 51-71.
16. J. R. Recalde, La construcción de las naciones (Madrid: Siglo XXI, 1982), p. 431 and passim.
17. G. Sartori, Teoría de la democracia. 1. El debate contemporáneo (Madrid: Alianza, 1988), p. 121 and passim.
18. The PNV's historic conception was based on equating Basqueness with nationalism. The party sought to shape the country along the nationalist model, using the nationalist local branches and social networks as its sources of clientelism. See J. C. Vitoria, 'El fracaso del nacionalismo tranquilo. Del espiritu de Arriaga a la via Ollora', in 100 anos de nacionalismo (Bilbao: El Correo, 1995), p. 79 and passim
19. X. Aierdi, 'Es un contrasentido un nacionalismo tranquilo?', Revista Inguruak, no. 5, pp. 63-96. UPV/EHU, Universidad de Deusto, AVS. Bilbao, 1989.
20. J. A. Ardanza, 'Pacificación y violencia' and 'Euskadi en el estado de las autonomías'. Conferences at the Fundación Sabino Arana (Bilbao) (Vitoria: Secretaría Presidencia del Gobierno Vasco, 1993), p. 32.
21. See also J. A. Ardanza, 'Debate de política general. Intervención del Lehendakari' (Vitoria: Secretaría General del Gobierno Vasco, 1992), pp. 10-20.
22. J. V. Viloria, 'El fracaso del nacionalismo tranquilo. Del espíritu de Arriaga a la vía Ollora', in 100 anos de nacionalismo, p. 81 passim.
23. On top of this should be added the 'divorce' between the PNV and Basque intellectuals in all fields. J. Juaristi, 'Símbolos, cultura, y etnicidad, Los signos de identidad del partido de Arana', in 100 anos de nacionalismo, pp. 43-51.
24. J. M. Ollora, 'El nacionalismo del futuro', in 100 anos de nacionalismo, pp. 91-5. This article opens with an Ingushio proverb showing a very low level of ethnic responsibility: 'The one that thinks of the consequences cannot be brave.'
25. Onaindía, Guía para orientarse en el laberinto vasco, p. 109.
26. For details of the Pact see http://www.lizarra-garazi.org.
27. J. L. Zubizarreta, 'Pesada hipoteca', El Correo, 17 October 1999.
28. See also I. Zubero, 'El debate sobre el derecho de autodeterminación en Euskadi', in X. Etxeberria Mauleon et al., Derecho de autodeterminación y realidad vasca (Vitoria: Servicio de Publicaciones del Gobierno Vasco, 2002), p. 72.
29. J. J. Ibarretxe, 'Konponbideak-Una iniciativa para la convivencia. 2002-2003'. Document at wwww.eaj-pnv.com. The text of the Plan can be found at http://www.nuevoestatutodeeuskadi.com.
30. See J. M. Mata, El nacionalismo vasco radical: discurso, organización y expresiones (Bilbao: UPV/EHU, 1993), pp. 55-63.
31. 'Qué somos' and some other writings by the PNV founder in S. Arana, Obras escogidas. Antología política (San Sebastian: Haranburu, 1978). Unlike most political parties, the PNV never publicly abandoned or revised its original xenophobic postulates. Today the use of racist terms such as maketo, or defining Basque identity in terms of individuals' origins and surnames, is not 'politically correct', although this does still happen. Nowadays discrimination takes place at the ethnic-linguistic and political levels.
32. P. Bourdieu, Cosas dichas (Buenos Aires: Gedisa, 1988), pp. 62, 134.
33. In the words of V. Klemperer: language not only creates and thinks for me, it also leads my emotions, my psychical personality. The more I take a natural and inconsistent approach to language, the more this happens. . . Words may act as very little doses of arsenic: one swallows them without noticing and they seem to have no effects; yet, eventually, they have a toxic effect. If someone says again and again 'fanatic' instead of 'heroic' and 'virtuous', he/she would end up truly believing that a fanatic is a virtuous hero and that without fanaticism one cannot be a hero. In LTI. La lengua del Tercer Reich. Apuntes de un filólogo (Barcelona: Minúscula, 2001), p. 31.
34. On the spiral of silence see, for example, E. Noelle-Neumann, La espiral de silencio (Barcelona: Paidós, 1995);
35. Linz, Conflicto en Euskadi, pp. 17, 624-5;
36. J. R. Llera, 'Continuidad y cambio en la politica vasca: notas sobre identidades sociales y cultural politica', Reis, no. 47 (July-September, 1989), p. 129.
37. For a further analysis see Mata, El nacionalismo vasco radical;
38. J. M. Mata, 'Nationalism and Political Parties in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. Strategies and Tensions', ICPS, no. 137 (1998);
39. J. M. Mata, 'Batasuna: la estrategia de la insurrección', El País Domingo, 18 August 2002, pp. 1-3;
40. J. F. Llera, J. M. Mata and C. L. Irwin, 'ETA: From Secret Army to Social Movement. The Post-Franco Schism of the Basque Nationalist Movement', Terrorism and Political Violence, 5/3 (Autumn 1993), pp. 106-34.
41. For the judicial edicts see the following webpages: www.elcorreodigital.org; www.elpais.es; and www.gara.net.
42. K. Aulestia, 'Balance provisional', El Correo, 28 December 2003, p. 26.
43. For a further discussion see R. Alonso, La Paz en Belfast (Madrid: Alianza, 2000);
44. 'La retirada del IRA', El País Domingo, 28 October 2001, pp. 1-3;
45. 'El conflicto interno', El Correo, 15 November 2002, p. 32;
46. 'De la retórica al compromiso', El Correo, 26 January 2003, p. 40; and
47. 'El buen ejemplo irlandés', El Correo, 27 April 2003, p. 34.
48. José Luis Barbería and Paxto Unzueta, Cómo hemos llegado a esto. La crisis vasca (Madrid: Taurus, 2003), pp. 304-5.
49. Gesto por la Paz, 'Monográfico. Violencia de persecución', 4 November 2002, www.gesto.org.
50. See the Instituto Vasco de Estadística and the Basque government webpages: www.eustat.es and www.euskadi.net.