An exercise in political fiction: what would happen in Spain if Pedro Sánchez agreed with EH Bildu or with the PNV to incorporate the term “Euskal Herria” into the Statute, making it clear that Navarra has the right to be part of the Basque autonomous community and that Lehendakari could determine when the National Police or the Civil Guard intervene in Euskadi? The reality is that all of this appears in the current Statute, the one from 1979. This Friday marks 45 years since its ratification in a referendum without, as is customary, there having been an official commemoration beyond the political acts of PSE. EE and PP. The day was festive for a brief period, with Patxi López as lehendakari. It is expected that on November 6, Sánchez and the Lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, will constitute a new bilateral commission to give impetus to the pending transfers, 29 according to the Basque side. The objective is for them to be completed by 2025, including the management of the Social Security economic regime, something never before transferred to an autonomous community.
The Basque Statute, which is the result of important balances in a Spain that had just approved the Constitution, which had a very recent dictatorship and in which terrorism and political violence marked daily life, is a text without a preamble. And it starts with a first article in which it is stated, verbatim, that “the Basque People or Euskal Herria, as an expression of their nationality, and to access their self-government, is constituted as an Autonomous Community within the Spanish State under the name of Euskadi. or Basque Country, in accordance with the Constitution and this Statute, which is its basic institutional norm.”
“This, today, would be impossible to approve politically. And legally it would surely have contrary reports,” explains Juanjo Álvarez, a professor who has advised the previous president, Iñigo Urkullu, on matters of self-government. Although paradoxically the PNV now claims the recognition of Euskadi as a nation as one of the minimum requirements for a statutory reform, Álvarez recalls that, very early on, the Ministry of Justice even issued some resolutions in which it spoke of Basque “nationals”. as a development of the term “nationality” provided for in both the Constitution and the Statute. “There can be no nationality without a nation or without nationals. Nationality does not come from region,” Álvarez reasons.
In article 2, also textually, it is explained that Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa “as well as Navarra” have the “right” to be part of the Basque autonomous community. It is specified that the Navarrese case will be activated “in the event that the latter decides to incorporate it in accordance with the procedure established in the fourth transitional provision of the Constitution.” Furthermore, in the articles there are references to the “other Basque territories” beyond Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa when referring, for example, to Basque.
“It was absolutely normal to speak in those terms. The term Euskal Herria was introduced thinking about a broad concept of country. It was a fight with the State and with [Adolfo] Suárez of the lehendakari, Carlos Garaikoetxea. On other issues we have made progress, of course, but here we have taken steps back,” says Joseba Azkarraga, PNV deputy in the first legislatures of democracy and then advisor to the Basque Government for EA, its split. “They are very different historical moments and I don’t think you can compare or imagine what the political actors of today would do if they had to be in the situation of 45 years ago. In politics, many times the context is everything,” adds Arantxa Elizondo, professor at the UPV/EHU and the only woman in the group of experts who worked on a statutory reform (later failed) in the legislature from 2016 to 2020.
The Statute also provides for a mechanism for the incorporation into Euskadi of enclaves that, like Treviño, form an administrative part of other autonomous communities. In a context of controversy over rulings and measures to regulate knowledge of Basque in access to public positions, the text in 1979 provided for assessing mastery of the Basque language as a “preferential merit” for practicing as a magistrate. In the symbolic field of security, the Ertzaintza is not regulated as such. The similarly named corps that operated in the Civil War is not even mentioned. The regional police of the territories – of which only the Miñones de Álava operated during the dictatorship – are referred to as the basis for a future autonomous body. And the functions of the National Police and the Civil Guard are also detailed to the point of foreseeing that they could receive instructions from the Lehendakari. “The State Security Forces and Corps may intervene in the maintenance of public order in the Autonomous Community. […] at the request of the Government of the Basque Country, ceasing the intervention at its request,” reads article 17.
And, yes, a transfer of Social Security is planned. “The Basque Country will be responsible for: a) The legislative development and execution of the basic legislation of the State, except for the rules that make up its economic regime. b) The management of the economic regime of Social Security”, you can read. A provision specifies that the transfer will be made “within” the “unitary character” of the system, that is, respecting the so-called ‘single fund’, and with “respect for the principle of solidarity” with the rest of Spain.
The Basque Statute is, along with the Galician one, the only one not reformed in Spain. There have been two activated attempts. The first is known as the ‘Ibarretxe plan’, a proposal with sovereignist components that achieved an absolute majority in the Basque Parliament but was rejected by an even greater majority in the Cortes Generales. The consultation scheduled for another October 25, 2008, was suspended by the Constitutional Court. This dynamic brought PSE-EE and PP together, which, in a Chamber with the traditional nationalist left outlawed and with ETA active, ended up agreeing to evict Juan José Ibarretxe in 2009.
The second occurred during the mandate of Iñigo Urkullu. The Lehendakari appeared before the citizens in 2012 with a promise of “new status” and several dates to launch a consultation. They were not fulfilled, but for two terms he worked on a self-government proposal that ended up not coming up with any proposals. Initially, PNV and EH Bildu agreed on some bases to overcome the 1979 framework but later Urkullu, who participated firsthand to avoid a unilateral declaration of independence in Catalonia, changed the step and redirected the situation by exploring another agreement with PSE-EE and Podemos , but it did not crystallize either.
Now there is also a commitment from Imanol Pradales to explore a “new pact.” “This new qualitative leap is also necessary due to the difficulties inherent to the previous process: the full fulfillment of the pending competencies is progressing with serious difficulties and, furthermore, throughout this time, there has been an erosion of the agreed competencies,” he said. captured in writing on a platform. His approach is very similar to that formulated by Urkullu: full compliance with pending transfers, a new framework with national recognition and bilaterality with the State and more powers. The PNV committed to a round of discreet meetings to explore possible agreements. The PSE-EE insists that it does not flirt with EH Bildu for a sovereignty proposal, something it sees as a “real threat.”
“Surveys indicate that there is not a very favorable position for major changes with respect to the current situation. Very radical changes are increasingly complicated. The only way the Statute of Autonomy has is a reform. And a reform that does not imply absolutely substantial changes in what has to do with the relationship with the Spanish State,” says Elizondo. The Statute itself defines how its reform must be. And, yes, it also always ends with a referendum. And he adds: “The acceptance of the autonomy regime established in this Statute does not imply renunciation of the Basque People to the rights that as such could have corresponded to them by virtue of their history, which may be updated in accordance with what is established by the legal system.”
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