First person: Basque independence activist - 09 Sep 07

Masculote:
Don't cheat, please! If the the two spanish nationalist reach the Basque Government is 'cos a political option was put out of law. Remember: even the votes were null, they got 100.000 of them. So they don't represent the majority. And don't tell me tales about that party was supporter of ETA; they are people and they count.

FREEDOM FOR THE BASQUE COUNTRY!

masculote: Your response to "kenyedig" may be all true based upon your experiences, but many Basques have learned their ancient language (or a composite of various forms of it) in an attempt to restore its usage as a matter of "ethnic" pride; a language which is spoken is not dead. Also, it is not only rural people who use the language. May we agree that the dominant culture and language seek to minimize, if not eliminate the Basque identity? As with Franco, no Euskara, no Euskadi.

Thomas, I said the language was "almost" dead, since the ikastolas or basque school were declared illegal during the spanish civil war, only few kept teaching Euskara secretly during Franco's dictatorship. In 1980 after democracy was restored, ikastolas were legalized and that gave a great impulse to the learning of basque language. Even nowadays, not even 50% of basques consider themseves to be fluent in Euskara. I do not believe ppl in spain is against the Euskara or the basque identity, +

We are against separatism and the partition of our country into pieces just because a minority wants to create a Trostkist island in northern Spain. We are proud of our diversity and want to keep it that way, a diverse Spain. In a democracy the majority rules, yet minorities are heard, just look at our complicated vote counting system, where a national party w/ 1million votes (IU) gets 2 diputies in parlament while PNV has 6 with only 306.000, but most the votes from a small geografical area.

masculote: My understanding is that a recent election was won by a Basque politician who wishes to eliminate Basque-only schools and wants to reduce the usage of the Euskadi language, much to the disappointment of many of his fellow euskaduni (a). As for the ETA, that is a matter for the Basque people to deal with.

In recent elections, the two biggest non nationalist political parties, created a non nationalist coalition that represents the majority of basques, they are not against Euskara, they are basques themseves, they are for the unity of Spain, they want the Spanish flag next to the ikurriña as in any other part of Spain and for a normalization of Basque-Spanish relations. I think you are wrong if you think ETA is a "basque only" problem, as they murder peoples from all over Spain.

masculote: I don't disagree. A good solution would be one which accepts and recognizes the Basque identity and language while including the Basque homeland as one of several diverse groups within Espana; Spain with never allow separation, so violence is an ineffective and destructive strategy. The ETA is born and sustained within the Basque community, so, in that sense, the solution is in the Basque community. When the ETA acts criminally, then it should become everyone's concern.

We would be more than happy if the radicals were thinking like you. The disappearance of ETA, will definitely help to advance in the political normalization of Spain. I agree, our democracy might not be perfect, but it is up to all of us Spaniards to improve to the benefit of everyone. Yet, unfortunately, that seems not to be enough for radicals. We keep saying " to recognize Basque language and culture", but I think it is done already,. I do not know what else needs to be done, (more)

the Spanish central government has reconized studies done in ikastolas, the basque community has two official languages, Basque and Castillian, they have their autonomous government, their own TV channels, their sports, festivities etc. What part of their culture is still prohibited or unrecognized? I think this is just a cliché used by the nationalists.