tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/eta-10232/articlesETA – The Conversation2017-08-25T11:42:51Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/830472017-08-25T11:42:51Z2017-08-25T11:42:51ZHow a remarkable novel is helping Spain come to terms with the Basque Country’s violent past<p>Western Europe’s last remaining home-grown terrorist organisation finally ceased operations in 2011 when Basque separatist group <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/10/eta-declares-permanent-ceasefire">ETA declared a permanent ceasefire</a>. And yet the decades of violence continue to cast a long shadow over Basque society and political life. As politicians on both sides remain as antagonistic as ever, novelists and other writers are taking on the challenge of tackling the subject with far more eloquence and nuance, telling stories that could provide a much-needed form of remembrance, catharsis and understanding.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31842429-patria">Fernando Aramburu’s novel Patria</a> (“Fatherland”) is a stellar example – and sets the bar high for others to follow. First published in Spanish in September 2016, it has reached a wider audience than novels on the subject written in Basque, and it has topped the bestseller lists – not only in the Basque region, but also in Spain every month so far this year. This is the novel that Spaniards are reading on the metro or bus on their way to work and packing in their suitcases to take on holiday. Translations into several other languages are now underway, including an English edition set for publication in 2019, the author told me.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183421/original/file-20170825-1005-7hw15s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183421/original/file-20170825-1005-7hw15s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183421/original/file-20170825-1005-7hw15s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183421/original/file-20170825-1005-7hw15s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183421/original/file-20170825-1005-7hw15s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183421/original/file-20170825-1005-7hw15s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183421/original/file-20170825-1005-7hw15s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Patria.</span>
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<p>In the past decade, Spain has been coming to terms with its 20th-century history of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/history/roadwar/spancivil/revision/1/">civil war</a> and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/general-franco-forty-years-after-his-death-spain-is-still-coming-to-terms-with-the-painful-legacy-of-a6741191.html">dictatorship</a>, ever since the <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/9989965">historical memory law of 2007</a> put an end to the unwritten agreement known as the “pact of forgetting” that had facilitated the transition to democracy. </p>
<p>Now, Aramburu has recognised that in the wake of ETA’s permanent ceasefire, there is another story that needs to be told and remembered in a sensitive and reconciliatory fashion. This cannot be achieved by politicians fighting over how best to facilitate ETA’s disbandment and address the legacy it leaves. It must be writers and other cultural practitioners who do that.</p>
<h2>A history of violence</h2>
<p>Originally founded in 1959 in opposition to Spanish dictator Franco’s suppression of regional identities, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11183574">ETA persisted</a> with its campaign of violence well into the 21st century, long after Spain’s transition to democracy. The separatist group has not killed since 2010, but its disarmament was protracted until April this year and its full disbandment remains pending. Moreover, politicians and society remain divided over controversial issues such as the treatment of ETA prisoners, who under Spanish law have their rights reduced and are subject to policies such as dispersion.</p>
<p>For too long, the Basque “conflict” was primarily portrayed, in a misleadingly simplistic fashion, as pitting Spain (or “the Spanish state”, as Basque nationalists put it) against the Basques. ETA itself, and the wider social and political movement linked to it, was responsible for propounding this vision to justify its existence. But sectors of the Spanish right then compounded the error by associating all Basque nationalism with ETA for their own political motives. In reality, however, one of the biggest tragedies caused by ETA is that it also pitted Basques against Basques.</p>
<p>Patria eloquently draws attention to this through its depiction of the impact on a typical small Basque village (which could be any one of many), focusing in particular on two once closely knit families that are torn apart when the father of one family ends up an ETA target while the eldest son of the other joins the terrorists. It is not only the relationship between the two families that suffers, but relations among parents and siblings within each individual family, too.</p>
<p>Aramburu is sensitive and sympathetic towards ETA’s victims and their families, and he conveys their suffering with tremendous poignancy. His real achievement, however, is to do so without descending into facile moralising or politicising. He shows the full complexity of the tragedy by seeing things from different perspectives. </p>
<p>This includes reflecting the way in which many naïve young Basques, brought up in pro-ETA towns and villages and subject to intense peer pressure, ended up buying into ETA’s ideology and somewhat unthinkingly obeying its orders.</p>
<p>Terrorism is unacceptable in any circumstances, but Spain’s way of dealing with it has not always been appropriate either – and Aramburu does not shy away from depicting the torture used on ETA prisoners or the violence wrought by the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/141720.stm">GAL, Spain’s covert paramilitary death squads</a> back in the 1980s.</p>
<h2>Family tragedies</h2>
<p>This is first and foremost a novel of excellent literary quality that the reader is compelled to keep reading to find out what happens to the two families and whether there is any hope of reconciliation after ETA’s reign of devastation. The novel starts with ETA’s ceasefire and then darts back and forth to different periods of time in each chapter, telling snippets of the story in a non-chronological and non-linear fashion, keeping the reader waiting until the very end to get the complete picture.</p>
<p>Aramburu never intended for the novel to be political or didactic, but precisely for that reason, the end result can actually serve a much better purpose than most intentionally didactic novels. Propagandistic Basque novels portraying ETA terrorists as heroes or martyrs have tended to be intensely bad literature. But a brilliantly written novel such as Patria provokes the reader to think and reflect without him or her necessarily realising it.</p>
<p>For Basque citizens, the novel provides a sensitive portrayal of their community and its recent history. Perhaps even more significant, however, is the way in which the novel can contribute to an understanding in wider Spanish society of the complex social situation in the Basque Country prior to, and in the wake of, ETA’s ceasefire – something which is often quite misunderstood, due in part to Spanish politicians’ simplification of issues for electoral purposes. Once translations of the novel start to appear they will promote understanding even beyond Spain’s borders, while also providing a compelling read.</p>
<p>Through its popularity, Patria has far surpassed the author’s own expectations. Aramburu himself has aptly <a href="https://www.canarias7.es/hemeroteca/aramburu_y-8216-patriay-8217-_se_ha_convertido_en_algo_no_previsto_un_fenomeno_social-ADCSN458190">described</a> this work as escaping his creative control as it becomes a social phenomenon with a life of its own. </p>
<p>Spain may have been rather late in confronting the ghosts of the civil war and Franco period after years of attempting to brush them under the carpet, but lessons have been learned. Patria provides a healthy dose of understanding and remembrance about the Basque Country’s violent past by a writer who is well aware of the need to talk of the past sensitively, all the more so when politicians remain at loggerheads.</p>
<p><em>This article was first published before Patria was translated into English under the title</em> Homeland.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83047/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Gray has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the BritishSpanish Society.</span></em></p>While politicians remain at loggerheads, the arts bring resolution to the Basque Country’s long history of violence.Caroline Gray, Lecturer in Politics and Spanish, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/360372015-01-08T16:57:19Z2015-01-08T16:57:19ZThe kind of toughness we need now<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68507/original/image-20150108-23816-ck4rcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"> </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carlo Allegri/Reuters </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I grew up in London during the IRA bombing campaign of the 1970s. I lived in Pittsburgh during the 9/11 attacks when United Flight 93 was forced down not far from the city. I’m currently in Paris where I live part of the year. </p>
<p>Each of these cities is filled with decent, thoughtful, moderate people: people who care about their families, their communities and their country. They may argue vehemently about politics, religion and sport. But what binds them, overwhelmingly, is their commitment to a modern set of values, liberal-democratic values that its proponents collectively define as “modernity and progress”. </p>
<p>These values are not unique to what their adversaries call “the West”. These values were just as evident among those Arabs and Muslims who protested in the squares of Cairo and Tunis. Those who began the war against Assad in Syria. Those who demanded greater rights in the streets of Hong Kong. Those who clamor for recognition on the streets of Moscow. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, in these cases, the protesters were outnumbered and crushed by adversaries who control the military and the police. They were defeated by politicians who can whip up a frenzy among people who fear the future rather than embrace it. </p>
<h2>We will always face threats</h2>
<p>In each generation, we collectively face a threat from people who value control and conformity rather than freedom of expression. The source and form of these threats take many forms and those that carry them out vary in their goals. </p>
<p>The Cold War sought to impose a statist political system. Jihadists want to impose a medieval one masquerading as a religious one. But they share common features. They seek to divide and conquer, to rule and impose their values. They seek to quell freedom of thought and action. </p>
<p>Sometimes the threat is widespread and realistic. Soviet missiles really did pose an existential threat. Sometimes it is more symbolic. The Paris shooting, like the IRA in London and 9/11 fits in the latter category. The target was well-defined, and carried out barbarically and with efficiency. It was the quintessence of terrorism.</p>
<p>Sadly, we will always face such threats. And they will always hit soft targets.</p>
<p>The really important question is how we respond. The humanity demonstrated by those who held vigils on the streets of many capitals around the world after the Paris killings was deeply touching and symbolically very important. But it is just the start. </p>
<h2>What to do?</h2>
<p>Shock and sadness will inevitably give way to indignation, anger and a desire for revenge. The scale of the attack on Charlie Hebdo was much smaller than 9/11. But it would be foolish to underestimate the effect of these killings on the French national psyche, a country that was spared the post 9/11 bombings in London and Madrid. </p>
<p>So how will we respond to each other when the shock has subsided? Today, as I write this story, France is preparing for a moment of silence and the streets of Paris are eerily silent. But will France be able to distinguish the real enemy from those we think look like the enemy in the months ahead? After 9/11, Muslims and people who looked like Muslims (which included Sikhs in turbans to the more ignorant) suffered discrimination at the hands of unscrupulous politicians and violence at the hands of thugs looking for someone to blame. Many Europeans, living in the throes of mass unemployment, are prone to the same temptation - to blame someone, anyone, for their individual and collective woes. </p>
<p>As I sat on the train last night after the attack, there were two women sitting near me. One was an older woman who wore a traditional head-dress. She looked down, unwilling to even acknowledge a man sitting opposite her. The other was a young woman with make-up, painted nails, a short skirt and high-heeled boots. They were obviously both Muslims. These were clearly nobodies’ enemy. Neither is my sister-in-law’s partner, a Jew whose family is from North Africa - and who can be mistaken for an Arab Muslim. </p>
<p>France’s National Front party, led by Marine Le Pen, has already embarked on a cynical course, denouncing Islam as the enemy. The FN is not alone. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/08/michel-houellebecq-new-novel-september-english-charlie-hebdo">Michel Houellebecq</a>, one of France’s most renowned authors, coincidentally published a novel yesterday entitled Submission (in English). Its central plot is that France has become an Islamic state in which civil society capitulates to Sharia law. Prior to the attack, it was the talk of France.</p>
<p>It is tempting to buy into this narrative, one of a clash of civilizations. Europeans from Greece to the UK are ready to do so. But we shouldn’t. Our common cause is with those who embrace common humanitarian values, even though we disagree about so much. Our enemies are those who reject these values. Both our allies and adversaries come in every color and proclaim every religion. It is time to get tough with those who oppose our common values. We’ve been too willing to let others divide us on the basis of color, wealth, religion or politics. </p>
<p>Getting tough doesn’t have to entail fighting more wars, mass imprisonment or the use of torture. The Spanish didn’t discriminate against a whole minority group when it fought ETA – and ultimately ETA <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/international/europe/23spain.html?_r=0">faded away</a>. </p>
<p>Real toughness means demonstrating the resolve showed by the English when they faced the IRA bombing campaign in the 1970s and 1980s. It entails the kind of dignity showed by those who held vigil in Paris’ Place de la Republique the night of the attack. It entails showing fortitude by sticking firmly with the values that have served us all well over the course of the last several centuries. </p>
<p>Otherwise, whether we defeat the Jihadists or not, they will have won.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36037/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
I grew up in London during the IRA bombing campaign of the 1970s. I lived in Pittsburgh during the 9/11 attacks when United Flight 93 was forced down not far from the city. I’m currently in Paris where…Simon Reich, Professor in The Division of Global Affairs and The Department of Political Science, Rutgers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/261152014-05-06T05:11:32Z2014-05-06T05:11:32ZBasque separatists inch along, watching Catalonia closely<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47673/original/vfpz4vdf-1399050037.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will the Basque flag ever make it to the United Nations?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chanzi/3178303789/in/photolist-5QRCZc-88utkD-88yd7y-9FJSFw-88uHWF-efSKW2-88ttJ4-88wwDq-88tRAM-88wpsG-88wyYu-88xExo-88x93S-88ws1o-55PPtY-55PPSJ-88wuaL-z9zRC-eqF2x-88xJs7-88x4sL-f2B1h-88xUAY-88xsJU-88tmST-88ybru-88tX3a-88tZui-88wUXy-88uvCT-88uCSe-88wYxW-88tVSZ-88wRnJ-88txYD-88tGmt-88y5Fy-88wPvd-88umoc-88ugvZ-88wFfS-88xymS-88wDe7-88tCTB-88u5AP-88uKXk-88xrdE-88uNMB-88wZLU-88u9ST">Chanzi</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There was a time when Catalan separatists looked at the Basque country enviously. Its independence movement seemed to have a strength and determination that the Catalans lacked. </p>
<p>Not anymore. The Catalan regional government and parliament have called a referendum on independence for November, two months after the <a href="http://www.scotreferendum.com/">Scottish referendum</a>. It <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-07/catalans-take-independence-bid-to-face-rajoy-s-refusal-in-madrid.html">has been rejected by Madrid</a> for being constitutionally illegal, but the Catalan separatists have not backed down. Basque nationalists are far from doing anything similar in the short-term.</p>
<p>Yet the Basque nationalists in general and the pro-independence movement in particular have been notably strengthened since armed separatist group ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/20/eta-spain">renounced violence in October 2011</a>. </p>
<p>Almost two-thirds of the members of the parliament of the <a href="http://www.spainwise.net/region/basque-country">Basque community</a> are nationalist. The moderate <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/55380/Basque-Nationalist-Party">PNV (Basque Nationalist Party)</a> runs the regional government in Vitoria-Gasteiz with 27 out of the 75 members of parliament; and left-wing separatist coalition <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bildu">Bildu</a> has 21 seats.</p>
<h2>The new left coalition</h2>
<p>The emergence of Bildu as a strong political force in Basque politics is one of the key consequences of the end of ETA’s campaign. In 2012 the left-wing separatist movement, which had been banned from politics since the early 2000s because of its alleged support for ETA, finally achieved a legal political party, <a href="http://www.organizedrage.com/2013/03/sortu-after-etas-cessation-of-armed.html">Sortu</a>. More importantly, the continuing absence of ETA violence enabled Sortu to become the driving force behind Bildu, a broader pro-independence coalition born after the end of ETA’s armed activity. </p>
<p>The Basque separatist movement is not yet in a position to follow the path opened by the Catalans, though. The Basques are still licking the wounds from their very recent violent past. ETA’s unilateral and definitive abandonment of the armed campaign might be two-and-a-half years old, but issues such as disarmament and prisoners have not been settled yet. </p>
<p>The Spanish government led by Mariano Rajoy has refused any dialogue with ETA, even though it <a href="http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/europe/140221-basque-group-eta-starts-decommissioning-arms">has this year</a> shown a willingness to disarm through a video-taped symbolic act of decommissioning of a few arms, witnessed by international verifiers. </p>
<p>Almost 500 imprisoned members of ETA (and other Basque civil organisations) are serving their sentences in Spanish and French jails, waiting for talks that will deal with their situation. Many regard the Spanish government’s inflexibility and non-dialogue a strategy to maintain a neverending scenario of conflict, thus obstructing a nationalist evolution towards a viable strategy for independence.</p>
<h2>Co-sovereignty instead of independence</h2>
<p>At the same time the Basque regional government led by the PNV main leader <a href="http://www.lehendakaritza.ejgv.euskadi.net/r48-contlapl/es/contenidos/informacion/v2_lehendakari_urkullu/es_urkullu/inigo_urkullu.html">Iñigo Urkullu</a> is clearly showing that it prefers to follow a pragmatic strategy of gradually progressive self-rule, leaving behind the more radical stances of the recent past. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47671/original/w2w52qrc-1399049719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47671/original/w2w52qrc-1399049719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47671/original/w2w52qrc-1399049719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47671/original/w2w52qrc-1399049719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47671/original/w2w52qrc-1399049719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47671/original/w2w52qrc-1399049719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47671/original/w2w52qrc-1399049719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47671/original/w2w52qrc-1399049719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Softly softly: Basque leader Inigo Urkullu with Spanish leader Mariano Rajoy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lamoncloa_gob_es/8486625566/in/photolist-dVWb7s-dhAKLt-dhzuQk-dhAKYp-dhAM4f-dhzuYH-dhALc8-dhzv9r-dhARzp-dhAybB-dhAQ25-dhAX73-dhAQFy-dhAEBN-dhAAr3-dhAPoj-dhAPov-dhAAap-dhAT5C-dhAF5m-dhAKR7-dhAGBy-dhAHi5-dhARDY-dhAPvZ-dhARpx-dhABGq-dhAQxu-dhABvp-dhASu5-dhAPf5-dhALfm-dhAR7f-dhAH4a-dhARWs-dhASDe-dhAMWr-dhARkG-dhAFKG-dhAE1p-dhATMQ-dhAzZN-dhANdV-dhARvE-dhAXBo-dhALCH-dhARW2-dhAV6J-dhAFxM-dhADyk">La Moncloa Gobierno</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>This is a change from the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the PNV led by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Jos%C3%A9_Ibarretxe">Juan Jose Ibarretxe</a> had been committed to a strategy widely regarded as separatist. The Basque parliament approved a statute recognising the right to self-determination <a href="http://www.iafor.org/offprints/ecss2013-offprints/ECSS2013_Offprint_0252.pdf">in 2004</a>, but it was rejected by Madrid the following year on the grounds that the Spanish constitution forbade it. </p>
<p>In 2008 the Basque parliament <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7477303.stm">approved a law</a> proposed by Ibarretxe to hold a referendum about a new legal framework, but the Spanish constitutional court prevented it on similar grounds. </p>
<p>In contrast the PNV of today has distanced itself from both the past strategy of Ibarretxe and the current strategy of its counterparts in Catalonia. On Easter Sunday, the annual Basque homeland day, a common occasion for radical claims to nationhood, <a href="http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/04/21/inenglish/1398065727_322576.html">Urkullu declared</a> that his government’s goal is not independence but a new relationship with the Spanish state based on co-sovereignty and bilateralism.</p>
<p>Bildu aims to move quicker and go further, but the coalition is aware that nationalists’ lack of political control elsewhere in the greater Basque country is making separation difficult in the short term.</p>
<h2>The Basque divide</h2>
<p>The Basque territories are divided into three political bodies: the Basque territories under Spanish sovereignty are separated into two autonomous communities – the Basque community and <a href="http://www.turismo.navarra.es/eng/home/">Navarre</a>. Then there are <a href="http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/exploring-frances-basque-country">three small Basque territories</a> under French sovereignty that are part of a bigger administrative region, the Atlantic Pyrenees. </p>
<p>Unlike the nationalist majority in the Basque community, they are minorities in the other territories. Nationalism is gradually growing stronger in Navarre, but not so in the French territories, where such parties usually get no more than 15% of the vote and not all of them support independence in any case. This means that the idea of a Basque independent state that would include the French territories is a utopian objective with no feasible prospect on the horizon. </p>
<p>The prospects for change in Navarre are not so unrealistic. The definitive end of ETA’s campaign, among other factors, has improved the political chances for Basque nationalists. It has become easier for Basque nationalist parties to find allies to team up and replace the region’s long-time ruler, the anti-Basque-nationalist right-wing <a href="http://www.upn.es/">UPN (the Navarrese People’s Union)</a>. </p>
<p>One option open to nationalists in the Basque community would be to sacrifice Navarre and push for independence only for their area. But Bildu have taken the view that a state border dividing Basques is already too much, and a national border would be too high a price to pay.</p>
<p>Instead the short-term strategy is to provoke a change in the Navarre government by forming an alliance with other progressive forces, which might include the <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/558200/Spanish-Socialist-Workers-Party">Spanish socialists</a>. </p>
<p>In the mid-term, the nationalists hope that such a shift could facilitate persuading a majority to support sharing a political project with the western Basque territories. In the 2011 regional elections, Basque nationalists <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navarrese_parliamentary_election,_2011">received 28.7% of the vote</a> in Navarre. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Navarrese_parliamentary_election">Recent polls show</a> that prospects for the 2015 elections are better still.</p>
<h2>The chain gang</h2>
<p>Meanwhile a collective of grass roots Basque nationalist activists has been organising a non-partisan campaign seeking recognition of the right to self-determination. Fuelled to a great extent by events in Catalonia and Scotland, the so-called <a href="http://gizakatea.gureeskudago.net/">Gure Esku Dago</a> (“it’s in our hands”) has been gaining momentum. </p>
<p>In an initiative that echoes last September’s <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/11/us-spain-catalonia-idUSBRE98A0FR20130911">400km human chain</a> in favour of Catalan independence, Zure Esku Dago <a href="http://www.euskalkultura.com/news/the-201cgure-esku-dago201d-initiative-comes-to-the-diaspora-and-invites-everyone-to-participate-in-a-human-chain-on-june-8th/view?set_language=en">intend to</a> form their own human chain on June 8. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47672/original/hgjmkm4b-1399049881.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47672/original/hgjmkm4b-1399049881.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47672/original/hgjmkm4b-1399049881.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47672/original/hgjmkm4b-1399049881.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47672/original/hgjmkm4b-1399049881.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47672/original/hgjmkm4b-1399049881.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47672/original/hgjmkm4b-1399049881.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/47672/original/hgjmkm4b-1399049881.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Catalan 400km human chain for independence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/assemblea/9673867022/in/photolist-fPiEFg-fJyF6P-fPFY4Q-fQxkT9-fQxm7E-g3gtpF-fPikSk-fPzShA-fQfKAz-fQfKt4-fJykG6-fJR6CJ-fJysbr-fJRqZf-fJyudt-fJywAn-fJyHzT-fJypM4-fJynH4-fJyMYM-fJyPH8-fJyAGD-fJyKNt-fJyS4Z-fJRaWf-fQxmk7-fFen7S-fQg5Ae-fQxuS5-fQxxYN-fQxFmC-fQfUTp-fQxupL-fQfWki-fQfUjT-fQg8Bv-fQxEjw-fQfPnX-fQfTWM-fQg5H8-fQfSbR-fQxAh7-fQxyWC-fQg41k-fQxrH1-fQxG9s-fQg5Zx-fQxtQE-fQxC1s-fQxs21">Assemblea.cat</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The object is to connect the 123km between the Basque towns of Durango and Iruñea-Pamplona. The movement is working with no official support from the main nationalist parties but seems to be attracting increasing support.</p>
<p>In sum, the prospects for Basque secession are still in the early stages. The major Spanish political parties have repeatedly showed that they are not prepared to reform the current legal framework to enable secessionist processes similar to the Scottish referendum.</p>
<p>Nationalists will need to be prepared for an uncertain political confrontation in which the rules of the game are clearly unfavourable to them. They know that in Catalonia, this has been countered at least to some extent by control of the regional parliament and a strong social movement pushing for secession. </p>
<p>Much will depend on the nationalists’ ability to persuade Navarre to more strongly support their cause. For now they can only look to Scotland and Catalonia and learn from their experiences for when the situation is ripe enough for Basque separatism. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This piece is part of the Breaking Nations series spotlighting independence movements around the world. The other instalments can be found <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/breaking-nations">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26115/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Imanol Murua does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There was a time when Catalan separatists looked at the Basque country enviously. Its independence movement seemed to have a strength and determination that the Catalans lacked. Not anymore. The Catalan…Imanol Murua, PhD Candidate, University of Nevada, RenoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.