Xabier Arzalluz
Xabier Arzalluz Antia (Azcoitia, August 24, 1932-Bilbao, February 28, 2019) was a Spanish politician of Basque nationalist ideology. He was a deputy for Guipúzcoa in the Congress of Deputies during the Constituent Legislature of Spain and president of the Basque Nationalist Party between 1980 and 2004.
Biography
Early years and training
He was born on August 24, 1932, into a Carlist family greatly influenced by his mother's religious spirit. His father was requeté and a member of Franco's honor guard.Xavier was the seventh and last child of the couple.He began ecclesiastical studies in 1949 when he entered the Jesuit novitiate at the Monastery of San Salvador de Oña, Burgos. In 1956 he joined the Jesuit Jesuit College of Zaragoza as a language teacher at the Colegio Jesús-María El Salvador.He was ordained a priest of the Society of Jesus on February 2, 1967. Around 1970 he left the Company to devote himself to politics.
He graduated in Law and Philosophy and Letters from the University of Zaragoza. In Germany, specifically in the city of Frankfurt am Main, during his Jesuit days, he studied Theology. The rhetorical training he acquired in the novitiate helped him develop rare dialectical and oratorical skills, making him a very difficult tribune to refute for his political adversaries and his coreligionists.[citation required]
A specialist in political law, he gave up his desire to be a professor to dedicate himself to politics, and joined the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), initially combining his clandestine political activities with his law firm, since the PNV was persecuted by the Franco dictatorship. On some occasions he defended accused of collaborating with ETA before the Public Order Court.
His activity began in the most difficult times for the party, whose internal structure was very weak at that time. Together with historical leaders of the PNV such as Juan Ajuriaguerra, he led Basque nationalism towards the transition, Arzalluz occupying prominent political positions after the arrival of democracy.
Deputy (1977-80)
He was a deputy for Guipúzcoa in the Congress of Deputies during the Constituent Legislature of Spain (1977-1979), a period in which he participated in the plenary sessions that were decisive for the construction of a democratic Spain, standing out for his oratory.
The PNV, which at that time formed part first of the Basque-Catalan Group and then of the Basque Minority, was not present at the presentation that drafted the Constitution, although as Arzalluz himself recounts, they were informed by Miquel Roca, representative of the Basque-Catalan Group, of the conversations that took place in this context.
Although he was re-elected as deputy, he resigned his act to dedicate himself entirely to the leadership of the PNV.
President of the PNV (1980-84; 1987-2004)
He assumed the leadership of the PNV, under which, and as a consequence of the approval of the Guernica Statute in 1979, the party formed the Basque Government. The PNV presided over the Basque Government from 1980 to 2009, the year in which it was succeeded by the PSE, until in 2012 when it presided over it again.
In 1981 Xabier Arzalluz, together with other leaders of the PNV, held three meetings with the top leadership of the political-military ETA, which had announced a truce and was debating its definitive abandonment of arms. This fact has been interpreted as an ambiguous attitude on his part regarding his support for a hypothetical breach of the truce, which would have given ETA-pm VIII Assembly arguments to continue terrorist activity. However, Arzalluz always denied such a position.
With the work of the PNV centered on the full development of the statutes, on the administration of the new regional powers and their expansion, it supported both the socialist government of Felipe González and the popular government of José María Aznar in Spanish politics, supporting his inauguration in 1996 despite the vehemence of his statements. From these agreements, he obtained important transfers of powers and a notable improvement in the Economic Agreement, which is the one that regulates the tax relationship between the central and Basque governments.
Cooperation with the popular broke soon after, with the PNV signing the Lizarra accords in an unsuccessful attempt to find a new path for Basque pacification.
When Aznar managed to be re-elected by an absolute majority after the 2000 elections, the Popular Party did not need the support of the nationalist parties, so the collaboration agreements were broken and a new phase began in the mandate de Arzalluz, focusing on the construction of a unity of nationalist action in favor of the self-determination of the Basque Country.
In 2004, in a disputed internal election, he was succeeded as the PNV presidency by Josu Jon Imaz, considered to be from the moderate wing of the party, against Joseba Egibar, who was the candidate defended by Arzalluz.
Legacy
Its political character has exerted an important influence on Basque political culture. Already removed from the leadership of the party, Arzalluz maintained an important influence on it.
He was criticized by the Spanish right-wing media, as well as by ETA, which in a 2006 Zutabe (ETA's internal bulletin) accused him of being a statesman, but of the Spanish State, and of having had relations with all the powers of Spain. He accused journalists of taking out of context some of his best-known claims, made at a secret meeting in 1991 with KAS members, the so-called "tree-nut analogy": "I don't know of any people who have achieved their liberation without Let some argue and others argue. Some shake the tree, but without breaking it, so that the nuts fall, and others collect them to distribute them.” Regarding this phrase, he later indicated that he was not referring to ETA, but to HB.
One of Arzalluz's recurring themes was race: "In Europe, ethnically speaking, if there is a nation, that is Euskal Herria (1993).[citation required ] "I'm not a racist. I prefer a black, black, who speaks Basque than a white who ignores it" (1994).[citation needed] "I am not saying that the Basques have the right to who knows what supremacy. The issue of RH-negative blood only confirms that these ancient people have their own roots, identifiable from prehistoric times as research by renowned geneticists maintains".[citation needed] (2-XI-2000).
In addition, his ambiguity regarding the terrorist organization ETA is well known: "We do not believe that it is good for the Basque Country if ETA is defeated"[citation required] (V-1992). "ETA prisoners are not criminals because they do not kill to enrich themselves or to benefit personally, but for a political ideal"[citation required] (X -1994).
In 2001 it was ranked 15th and in 2002 19th in the popularity ranking of the newspaper El Mundo.
His memoirs were published in the book by Javier Ortiz entitled Arzalluz: Así fue (2005), in which he denies the unauthorized biography Arzalluz: The dictatorship of fear (2001) made by José Díaz Herrera and Isabel Durán, and in which he is related to ETA and corruption.