Basque Politics - History

History

This section is about the history of the Autonomous Community since 1978. See also History of the Basque people

The forerunner of the Gernika Statute was the short-lived Statute of Autonomy for Álava, Gipuzkoa and Biscay enforced in October 1936 just in Biscay with the Spanish Civil War already raging and automatically abolished when the Spanish Nationalist troops occupied the territory.

Before the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and its system of autonomous communities, these three provinces were known in Spanish as the Provincias Vascongadas. The political structure of the new autonomous community is defined in the Gernika Statute, which was approved by a majority in a referendum held on 25 October 1979. Nowadays it is one of the most decentralized regions in the world, in this regard it has been quoted as having "more autonomy than just about any other in Europe" by The Economist.

As regards the bounds to the Spanish Constitution, Basque nationalists cite the fact that in the 1978 Spanish Constitution referendum, which was passed with a majority of votes and a poor turnout in this area, the Basque Country had the highest abstention (the Basque Nationalist Party had endorsed abstention on the grounds that the Constitution was being forced upon them without any Basque input). To this, the "no" vote in this referendum was also higher in the Basque Country than in the rest of the state. All in all, many Basques believe that they are not bound to a constitution that they never endorsed.

The Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country is a constitutional law but powers have been devolved gradually during decades according to re-negotiations between the Spanish and the consecutive Basque regional governments to reach an effective implementation, while the transfer of many powers are still due and has always been a matter of heated political discussion. Basque nationalists often put down this limitation in the devolution of powers to concessions made to appease the military involved in the 23-F coup d'état attempt (1981).

In 2003, the governing Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) proposed to alter this statute through the Ibarretxe Plan. The bill, though approved by majority in the Basque chamber, was subject to lengthy legal objections (on the grounds that it contradicts the Spanish Constitution) but was finally discussed and rejected in January 2005 by a large majority in the Madrid Cortes Generales.

Since the first autonomic cabinet, the Basque Nationalist Party has led office in the Basque Autonomous Community up to May 5, 2009, when after thirty years the Lehendakaritza (Basque presidency) was first handed over to the Basque Socialist Party's candidate Patxi López, after an unprecedented agreement with the conservative Popular Party. The new coalition based its power on a new majority formed by outlawing the Basque nationalist leftists deemed by the Spanish judiciary linked to ETA, with more than 100,000 votes coming from that political force considered void.