Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque Nationalist Party, officially the Basque National Party in English, is a Basque nationalist and regionalist political party. The party is located in the centre of the political spectrum. It has been described as Christian democratic, with social democratic and conservative-liberal factions.
The EAJ-PNV was founded by Sabino Arana in 1895, which makes it the second oldest extant political party in Spain, after the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. The EAJ-PNV is the largest Basque nationalist party, having led the Basque Government uninterruptedly since 1979, except for a brief period between 2009 and 2012. In Navarre, it is part of the coalition Geroa Bai, which is currently a junior partner of the PSOE in the Navarrese regional government. In Spain at large, the party has been supporting current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a member of the PSOE, since 2019. Currently a member of the European Democratic Party, EAJ-PNV was previously a member of the European Free Alliance from 1999 to 2004. Earlier it had been affiliated with the European People's Party and the Christian Democrat International.
The party operates in all the territories comprising the Basque Country: the Basque Autonomous Community, Navarre and Treviñu in Spain, and in the French Basque Country. It also has delegations in dozens of foreign nations, specifically those with a major presence of Basque immigrants. Its current chairman is Andoni Ortuzar. The party's youth wing is Euzko Gaztedi. The EAJ-PNV's social offices are called batzokis, of which there are over 200 throughout the world. Since 1932, the party celebrates Aberri Eguna on Easter. Also, since 1977, it celebrates Alderdi Eguna.
History
Origins and early history
The Basque Nationalist Party was founded in 1895 by Sabino de Arana Goiri as a Catholic and conservative political party agitating for political independence for the province of Biscay and the defence of Basque traditional culture, language, and racial purity. In fact, in its early years, party membership was restricted to those who could prove pure Basque ancestry by having eight Basque surnames.By 1897, the party sought independence not only for Biscay but for all seven provinces comprising the Basque Country in both Spain and France.
In 1916, the Basque Nationalist Party renamed itself the Basque Nationalist Communion. This name change marked a departure, in many aspects, from the original doctrine of the late Sabino Arana and casting itself as a broader social movement rather than simply a political party. The Basque Nationalist Communion at this point advocated for Basque autonomy within Spain, rather than outright independence. However, a small faction known as the "Aberrianos" within the party remained committed to the cause of independence. In 1921, the leading members of the Aberrianos were kicked from the moderate Basque Nationalist Communion. Later that year, the Aberrianos officially formed their own political party, reclaiming the name "Basque Nationalist Party".
During the single party dictatorship of Captain General Miguel Primo de Rivera, the Basque Nationalist Party was outlawed, and its members went underground. Many of its activities continued through mountaineering and folklore associations. However, the Basque Nationalist Communion was tolerated by the Spanish dictatorship as it was considered a moderate regionalist party.
At the end of 1930, the two nationalist organisations united under the original name Basque Nationalist Party. However, a small faction split from the Basque Nationalist Communion shortly before the reunification, calling itself Eusko Abertzale Ekintza-Acción Nacionalista Vasca. It was on the moderate nationalist left, non-confessional and open to alliances with Spanish republican and socialist parties.
The Second Spanish Republic
1934–1935
The division between autonomism and independentism appeared again during the Second Spanish Republic. Headed by Aberriano veteran Eli Gallastegi, a small group of independentists coalesced around the Mountaineering Federation of Biscay and its affiliated weekly publication Jagi-Jagi, and abandoned the now-moderate and autonomist Basque Nationalist Party.The Spanish Civil War and Franco's rule
Civil War
After the Spanish Civil War of 18 July 1936, the party felt torn. Certain branches of the party supported the rebellion against the Republic, feeling sympathy for its Catholic and anti-communist agenda. However, the right-wing rebels insisted on a unified Spain, making them hostile to nationalist movements in regions such as the Basque Country. Furthermore, the Basque Nationalist Party was also anti-Fascist, while Fascists constituted a large part of the rebellion. Ultimately, the republican government was able to secure the allegiance of the Basque Nationalist Party with the promise to pass a Basque Autonomy Statute.The Biscayan and Gipuzkoan branches declared support for the republic, democracy, and anti-fascism in the ensuing Spanish Civil War and were key in balancing those provinces to the Republican side. In the territory seized by the rebels, PNV members faced tough times. During the military uprising in Navarre, the Basque nationalist mayor of Estella-Lizarra, Fortunato Aguirre, was arrested by the Spanish nationalist rebels, and killed in September. Some Basque nationalists could flee north to Basque areas loyal to the Republic, or France. However, some members of the Alavese and Navarrese committees, ahead of an official decision, published notes refusing support to the Republic. Notwithstanding their initial ambiguous position in certain areas, the party premises and press in Álava and Navarre were closed in that month of July.
Some PNV sympathizers and members joined the Carlist battalions, either out of conviction or to avoid persecution. By October 1936, a war front had been established at the northern tip of Álava and to the west of Donostia-San Sebastián. Initially, the Defence Committees in Biscay and Gipuzkoa were dominated by the Popular Front. After hard negotiations, eventually Basque autonomy was granted within the Second Spanish Republic in late 1936, and the new autonomous government immediately organized the Basque Army, consisting of militias recruited separately by the various political organizations, including the EAJ-PNV, EAE-ANV, and Jagi-Jagi.
The autonomous government maintained remarkable order behind the lines in Biscay and western Gipuzkoa, and managed the coordination and provision of military resistance. Upon occupation of territories loyal to the Republic, the rebel forces focused repression on leftists, but Basque nationalists were also targeted, facing prison, humiliation, and death in some cases. As the rebel troops approached Biscay, the Carlist press in Pamplona even called for the extermination of Basque nationalists.
José Antonio Aguirre, the party leader, became in October 1936 the first lehendakari of the wartime multipartite Basque Government, ruling the unconquered parts of Biscay and Gipuzkoa. In April 1937, the city of Gernika was bombed by German airplanes covertly aiding the rebel forces. Jose Antonio Aguirre stated that "the German planes bombed us with a brutality that had never been seen before for two and a half hours." Pablo Picasso made a painting in remembrance of the massacre named after the city that year.
When Bilbao, the most populated city in the Basque Country, was taken by Franco's troops, the Basque nationalists decided to not destroy or sabotage the powerful manufacturing industry of Bilbao, thinking that they had the responsibility to secure the prosperity of their people in the future. This decision allowed the occupying rebel forces to use the industrial power of Bilbao in their war effort against the rest of Republic-aligned Spain.
In July 1937, having lost all Basque territory, the Basque Army retreated toward Santander. With no territory or help from the Republic, the Basque Army surrendered to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontari through the so-called Santoña Agreement. Prison sentences and executions followed, as the rebel government of Francisco Franco ruled that separate terms of surrender could not be made between the Basques and Italians. The Basque government then moved to Barcelona until the fall of Catalonia, and then out of Spain into exile in France. Lehendakari Aguirre was exiled in Belgium when Hitler's forces invaded it, thus beginning his long clandestine journey to reach the United States. With a false identity, he travelled to Berlin, and then on to Sweden with the help of a Panamanian ambassador. He fled Europe for Latin America, where in Uruguay he re-assumed his real identity and was given a visa to the United States. He travelled to New York, where he was taken under the protection of American Basques as a professor at Columbia University.
Exile during the post-war
The president of the Basque Government in exile was always a EAJ-PNV member. Additionally, the sole Spanish representative in the United Nations was the Basque appointee Jesús de Galíndez, until his murder in an obscure episode regarding his PhD Thesis about Dominican Republic's dictator Trujillo. He also decided to put the large Basque exiles' network at the service of the Allied side and collaborated with the US Secretary of State and the CIA during the Cold War to fight Communism in Spanish America.When the United States decided to back Franco in 1952, Aguirre went to France where the Basque Government in exile was established. Also, he learned there that the pro-Nazi French government of Vichy confiscated the Basque Government's building and that the anti-Nazi Charles de Gaulle maintained it as a Spanish Government's possession. The building today is the Instituto Cervantes premises where French people can learn any of the Spanish languages, including Basque.