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Nabarra is Further Divided:
Negotiations for Low Autonomy

Official negotiations for low autonomy for Nabarra's territories in Spain (Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa) started in mid-1977 but were halted after the PNV's boycott to the Basque General Council . A Basque General Council had been created in 1977 with the sole purpose to negotiate a Basque home rule statute. The composition of this council was proportional to the 1977 election results. However, after a dispute between the PNV and the PSOE-PSE over the appointment of PSOE-PSE Ramon Rubial for the presidency of the Basque council, the PNV boycotted the council. The PSOE-PSE had originally proposed PNV Jesus Maria Leizaola, but the PNV declined arguing that Leizaola was the president of the Basque government-in-exile and that the government-in-exile and the new council were not comparable bodies. The socialists then put up Rubial for the presidency of the Basque council.

Two political coalitions seeking Basque independence were formed during the transition: Euskadiko Ezkerra (EE, Euskadi's Left), which participated in the 1977 elections, and Herri Batasuna (HB, People's Unity), a coalition of several left-wing groups, which was formed in 1978 and contested elections in 1979. The two groups were supported by about 30% of the electorate in Bascongadas. Herri Batasuna supports ETA and, while contesting for elections, rejects parliamentary democracy for representative democracy based on peoples' assemblies. It demands Basque independence and socialism, and monolingualism. Euskadido Ezkerra was formerly the political arm of ETA politico-military, which decided to abandon armed struggle in 1982 and participate in the parliamentary political process. In 1993 EE integrated into the Spanish Socialist Party.

In the general elections of March 1979 and the municipal election in the following month, the vote of the socialists and the center-right crumbled. The PNV emerged as the major Basque party but the most unexpected result of these elections was the ascendancy of the nationalist left represented by Herri Batasuna, HB.

Using its electoral superiority, the PNV moved on the issue of autonomy insisting that a satisfactory Basque autonomy statute had to be granted immediately if ETA's armed struggle were to cease. The Basque General Council was bypassed and the PNV quickly negotiated an autonomy statute with Madrid in July 1979. The exclusion of all other Basque political parties from the negotiations with the Spanish government was explained by the PNV as unfortunate but the "urgency of the situation" had not allowed time for multi-party discussions to take place. This benefits the PNV by joining Nabarra's truncated territories of Araba, Bizkaia and Gizpuzkoa under its particular political influence. Unfortunately by leaving Nabarra outside the existing division of the so-called Basque Country becomes a permanent view of the PNV's legitimation.

In October 1979 the statute of autonomy for Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa (aka Baskongadak) was approved in referendum. The statute presented to the Basque electorate for approval was not the one drafted in Gasteiz and Gernika (the Gernika Statute) by the regional parties but a profound modified version (the Moncloa Statute) negotiated at the Moncloa palace in Madrid between the PNV and the center-right alliance that carried out Spain's Francoist political reform.

Preparations for the referendum included political speeches promising, among other things, the union with Nabarra and the departure of the security forces, and a flier called "12 Minutes" promoting the statute, which was distributed among the population of Bascongadas. The PNV and EE carried out an extensive campaign in favor of the Moncloa Statute:

"If the statute is not established, there is a danger of military intervention in Euskadi and a coup d'Etat in Spain." Juan Maria Bandres of Euskadiko Ezkerra, in an interview with journalist Robert Pastor, July 2, 1979.

"The statute is the first step towards the independence of Euskadi." Carlos Garaikoetxea (former president of the PNV and the first president of the autonomous government of Bascongadas), in a speech given in Getxo (Bizkaia) in September 30, 1979.

The unity of Baskongadak and Nabarra has been, and continues to be, an important issue in the Basque conflict. According to Luis Nuñez Astrain (La Razón Vasca), although there is a great difference of opinion within Nabarrase society as to the union of Baskongadak and Nabarra, the issue could have been solved during the Spanish political transition when most political parties, the Nabarrase, the Basque nationalists and the Spanish, backed one statute of autonomy for Nabarra and Baskongadak with Iruñea (Pamplone) as the political center of the autonomous community.

Nuñez Astrain quotes the following statements from the specified political parties (translation by EHJ):

For cultural, economic, and above all, political reasons, we are in favor of Nabarra being becoming part of Euskadi. Partido Comunista de España, PCE, Spanish Communitst Party, August 5,1977.

The point of the matter lies in a formula agree by both, which would not totally integrate Nabarra in Euskadi, for a future statute for the four Basque provinces. Nabarra is Euskadi and therefore, in must be within Euskadi's autonomy project. Jose Maria Benegas, PSOE, August 8, 1977.

The attitude of the UCD government in front of the possible inclusion of Nabarra in the Basque project is now more open. After the Nabarrase Foral Congress to be celebrate at the beginning of the year, Nabarra can be integrated to the other three Basque provinces. Jose Maria Benegas, PSOE, October 22, 1977.

The UCD wants to prevent any kind of relation between Nabarra and the Basque Country [Bascongadas]. Gabriel Urralburu, PSE of Nabarra, January 1, 1978.

There is a subject that worries us and at the same time makes us feel enthusiastic, and that is the association of Nabarra with the rest of the Basque Country [Bascongadas]. V.M. Arbeloa, PSE of Nabarra, May 5, 1980.

As Nabarrase, I love everything that is Basque. We are willing to accept the inclusion of Nabarra in the Basque project for an autonomy statute. Jaime Ignacio del Burgo, May 11, 1977.

In October 1979 the statute of autonomy for Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa (Baskongadaks) was approved in referendum. The statute presented to the Basque electorate for approval was not the one drafted in Gasteiz and Gernika (the Gernika Statute) by the regional parties but the profound modified version (the Moncloa Statute) negotiated at the Moncloa palace in Madrid between the PNV and the center-right alliance that carried out the Spanish political reform.

Unlike the Statute of Autonomy of 1933 granted to Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa during the Spanish Second Republic, which was approved by 84% of the Basque electorate, with the same question and in the same territory, the Statute of Autonomy of 1979 was approved by 53% of the Basque electorate.

According to Nuñez Astrain, the question arises as to why the PNV, which had abstained from voting in Spain's 1978 constitutional referendum, agreed to vote on the statute. The PNV, was unable to call for a `Yes' vote to the 1978 Spanish Constitution, which does not recognizes Basque sovereingty. Neither was the PNV able to join the Basque resistance and challenge the Spanish governmen, which would have meant sharing the Basque social and political space with the Basque resistance. The PNV would have lost its historical hegemony over the nationalist sector of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa. Moreover, the PNV is too far of the right of the Basque resistance to back their demands.

The acceptance of the Moncloa statute of 1979 enabled the Basque bourgeoisie to occupy the autonomous space which offered them the possibility for political and economic hegemony, especially at the level of the provincial governments, traditionally controlled by members of the Basque bourgeoisie. The Spanish reform succeeded in drawing to its side a large sector of the Basque bourgeoisie that controlled the leadership of the PNV. With this maneuver, Madrid was able to exploit the division between the resistance and sectors of the petite bourgeoisie, the middle classes and even some of the traditional popular strata loyal to the PNV.

Meanwhile in (residual) Nabarra, an alliance of the Left (PSOE, Spanish Socialist Party) and the Right (UCD, Union of the Democratic Center and UPN, Union of the Nabarrase People) negotiated an autonomy statute with the central government. Three members of parliament, including Herri Batasuna's, member parliament, were banned from the negotiating Commission. In 1982 the law of Amejoramiento del Fuero Nabarro (approved by the Nabarrese parliaments and not by referendum) provided Nabarra with its own autonomy statute thus further dividing Nabarra from its truncated territories of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa. Article 145 of the Spanish Constitution states that: "[u]nder no circumstances shall the federation of Autonomous Communities be allowed."

In this way, the institutional division of Nabarra's territories in Spain was finally consolidated.

According to Nuñez Astrain, the Francoist transition to parliamentary monarchy can't be fully understood without mentioning the coup d'Etat of February 1981 in the Spanish parliament. The coup brought about the Ley Organica de Armonizacion del Proceso Autonomico (LOAPA, Organic Law for the Harmonization of the Autonomic Process), approved by the Spanish parliament in 1982, and which recovered the paltry concessions that had been made in 1979 to the regional communities. In 1983 the Constitutional Court declared fourteen articles of the law wholly or partially unconstitutional but the remaining portions of the LOAPA (now known as LPA) became law and entered into force in October 1983. Regional autonomy was further weakened by the law of the State Security Corps and Forces, the law of Judicial Power, and the Basic Law on Civil Servants. The possibilities of state decentralization, which would have given some benefits to Nabarra and the Baskongadak are controlled, watched, and weakened by central legislation and the state.

Bibliography: Luis Nuñez Astrain, La Razón Vasca, (Txalaparta, 1995); Jose Luis Cereceda, Euskadi en guerre (Ekin, 1987); Marianne Heiberg, The Making of the Basque Nation (Cambridge University Press, 1987); Francisco Letamendia, Historia del Nacionalismo Vasco y de ETA (R&B Ediciones); Towards the National Liberation of Euskadi ( Ekin, 1992)