After 74 years, the historic headquarters of the Basque Government in exile in Paris is once again the property of the PNV. The Official State Gazette (BOE) publishes this Christmas Eve Tuesday the decision of the central government to return the property to the PNV, which was the one who bought the mansion that was taken from it by the Franco regime in 1951 and which has been occupied by the Cervantes Institute in the French capital since 2009. A good gift from Olentzero for the Jeltzales, who have been claiming ownership for years. The Cervantes Institute will continue to occupy the property for another five years, until 2030. During this period, the central government will pay rent to the PNV at a “market price.”
The mansion, located at number 11 Avenue Marceau in Paris, was acquired by the PNV in 1936, and was the headquarters of the Basque Government in exile during the Civil War and for several years during the Franco regime. In 1941, with the German occupation of Paris during World War II, it was handed over to the Franco regime. After the liberation of Paris by the Allies in 1944, the Francoists abandoned the building, which was once again occupied by the members of the Basque delegation, but in 1951 the French authorities heeded the Franco regime’s claim on the property and the PNV lost Definitely the property. Until today.
The Euzkadi Buru Batzar (EBB) of the Basque Nationalist Party has celebrated “the decision of the Spanish Government to recognize and return” this building. A decision “of justice”, they say, approved on Monday in the Council of Ministers and which was published this Tuesday in the BOE. It is a claim that has been raised for “decades” by this party, as the PNV has recalled, and that the Sánchez Executive has carried out in compliance with the Ninth Additional Provision of Law 20/22 of Democratic Memory, regarding ‘Properties and rights seized abroad’ and after verifying “the historical connection of the building with this party.”
As explained by the PNV, “a relevant circumstance has decisively weighed in the decision of the Spanish Government: it is fully proven and demonstrated that, although it was used by the Basque Government in exile, who acquired and paid for the building on Marceau Avenue It was EAJ-PNV.” As detailed, the transfer prior to its acquisition was formalized on September 12, 1936, “when the Basque Government did not yet exist” and, in fact, “the Statute of Autonomy that legally supported its existence had not yet been approved.” of that first Executive. “In the reports it has commissioned, the Spanish Executive has been able to confirm reliably that the origin of the funds with which the initial purchase of the building was paid was not and could not have been the Basque Government, but rather they were collected in 1936 and managed by the PNV.”
The Council of Ministers also agreed in its last meeting of the year and in compliance with the Democratic Memory Law, to compensate the Basque Nationalist Party for the deprivation of the property located in Noyon (France) known as Hotel de Mont Renaud and the one located in Compans ( France) called Ferme de l’Hotel de Dieu.
The return of the building has been carried out by the Government of Pedro Sánchez, which is lavishing this end of the year with winks to the nationalists. This same Monday, another important agreement was signed in the Joint Concert Commission and Lehendakari Pradales himself highlighted the agreements that were being reached in this bilateral body and trusted that all transfers would be completed by 2025. But the PNV itself has recalled that the return of the building on Marceau Avenue was a commitment that the Government of Mariano Rajoy had made with the jeltzale party and that it could not fulfill because the motion of censure presented by the PSOE was successful. Subsequently, in the conversations to obtain Jeltzale support, Pedro Sánchez committed to the president of the EBB, Andoni Ortuzar, to “respect and comply with all those issues that the Basque party had previously agreed with the Rajoy Executive, so that the restitution of the building on Marceau Avenue also became a commitment of the current president of the Spanish Government.” The Basque Government opened a new headquarters in Paris in 2022, but the PNV never abandoned its claim to the Marceau Avenue building.
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