Basque Nationalism - Political Violence and Devolved Autonomy

Political Violence and Devolved Autonomy

In 1959, young nationalists (abertzaleak) founded the separatist group ETA, which soon adopted a Marxist revolutionary policy in the 1960s. Inspired by movements like those of Castro in Cuba and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, the group aimed to establish an independent socialist Basque country through violence and extortion. ETA's first confirmed assassinations occurred in 1968, thereafter adopting violence, killing included, as a policy (theory of action-repression-action). At an ideological level, instead of race, the organization stressed the importance of language and customs.

When Spain re-emerged as a democracy in 1978, autonomy was restored to the Basques, who achieved a degree of self-government without precedent in modern Basque history. Thus, based on the fueros and their Statute of Autonomy, Basques have their own police body and manage their own public finances with virtually no intervention from the central government of Spain. The Basque Autonomous Community has been led by the nationalist Christian democratic PNV since it was reinstated in the early 1980s until 2009 when PSE got into office. In Navarre, Basque nationalism has failed to gain control of the Autonomous Community's government, ruled by UPN often with the support of PSN, but Basque nationalist parties run many small and medium size councils.

Although France is a centralized State, Abertzaleen Batasuna, a Basque nationalist party, maintains a presence in some municipalities through local elections.