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04/03/2010

Urkullu: “We are a people, we form a nation and we want to be free”

Iñigo Urkullu, chairman of the Governing Council of the Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV) said at the Aberri Eguna celebrations in the Plaza Nueva square in Bilbao that "we are a people, we form a nation and we want to be free. Euskadi is a people with its own identity that is entitled to defend itself and to maintain a presence in the world".

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Urkullu: “We are a people, we form a nation and we want to be free”

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Mr. Urkullu called "for us to demonstrate that we are capable of bringing together all the people and all the tendencies of democratic Basque patriotism in a single push for a country, overcoming any errors that may have been committed in the past. We are currently experiencing an unprecedented fragmentation of democratic Basque nationalism committed to public institutions. That fragmentation has opened the door for the success of the strategy of the Socialist (PSE) and Popular (PP) Parties. At this time all those who believe that Euskadi is a nation, who are convinced that it is up to us Basques alone to decide our own present and future, who believe in a future of well-being, development and freedom will find the Basque Nationalist Party moving in their same direction. And together we can make our own path".

Addressing thousands of party members and sympathisers, he went on to say that "we are living in a time of economic crisis. But let us not mislead ourselves: the crisis is not just economic. It also stems from ethical shortcomings. Those shortcomings are latent in today's society. They can be found here among us in Euskadi too. Our principles are our values: honesty, commitment, hard work and transparency. These are the values on which our project for seeing us through the crisis is based. In the heart of the EAJ-PNV, no-one can take those values away from us. No-one. Never. Ever. Let me make that clear. Hard work and commitment so that Euskadi can grow, prosper and develop. Growth based on day-to-day effort and hard work. Growth based on productivity, not speculation. Growth based on honesty, ethics and transparency. There is no room in the Basque Nationalist Party for anyone who fails to live up to these principles. No room". 

He added that "we are also living through the turbulence of an iron-handed pact in the Autonomous Community of Euskadi, just as we did before in the Community of Nafarroa. A pact imposed from outside. A pact between opposites. An iron-handed pact intended, according to its proponents, to "normalise Euskadi". A year ago the PP and PSOE achieved their long-sought goal. The dark object of their desires. A year ago they "normalised" us. A year ago they changed the colour of Euskadi on their map. Their Spanish map. But they have a problem: Euskadi is still green. Euskadi is still Euskadi. Basque society is still different. However much that displeases them. However much they seek to change us and dilute us. However hard they try they will never "normalise" us. Because we know what their "normalisation" means.  It means imposing their norms on us. The Spain of the single, uniform nation-state. A state with a single nation: the Spanish nation. That is their pact. That is what they have been working for these past ten years. That is what they seek to impose on us for the next ten".

"And what has that pact brought us? What has this new government brought us? The same as the Rodríguez Zapatero government: unemployment, debts and economic paralysis. With López and Zapatero unemployment has risen to 11.7% in Euskadi in just nine months. Not one initiative to create quality jobs. Quite the contrary: they have tried to sneak through a faulty devolution of active employment policies. With López in government our borrowing level has increased tenfold in just nine months, and this has been done so as to increase current spending. Since López entered government investment has been paralysed. Efforts to achieve innovation and to internationalise the fabric of our technology and our businesses have been cut. That is what López and his government have brought us: disorientation and paralysis". 

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