Six months of illegitimate government in the Basque Autonomous Region.

Six months ago the Spanish Labour Party/PSOE took over the three western Basque provinces' regional parliament with the support of the Spanish Conservative Party/PP.

It was the end of 30 years of Basque Nationalist Party/PNV government. The change was possible as a result of the banning of the pro-independence left. In this way the political apartheid imposed by the Spanish authorities reached one of its objectives.

The same type of government is in place in the other Basque regional parliament of Navarre where the Spanish unionist right wing holds power thanks to the support of the Spanish Labour Party and the banning of the pro-independence left.
These strange coalitions show the nature of the state pact against the Basque people’s will for change and democracy.

During the first six months of the Basque Autonomous Region’s government political tension has increased with an extremely repressive summer against all displays of solidarity with political prisoners, the banning of demonstrations and the efforts to make Basque national symbols disappear from public places.

The latest controversy came about last week when the regional Education Minister expressed her aims to make all references to the Basque Country as a nation disappear from the curriculum. She went on to say that Basque language medium education was offensive for 80% of the population.

The objectives of the pro-Spanish political offensive are clear: to turn the three western Basque provinces into a “normal” Spanish region and to make the unionist vision of the region the “neutral” vision in opposition to the “biased” nationalist vision.