‘Izan zinetelako gara”. "Because you were, we are". Under this slogan, the Euzkadi Buru Batzar (the EAJ-PNV National Council) and the Basque Nationalist Party paid a heart-felt, emotive and multitudinous tribute to all nationalist women, who over the 122 years of life of EAJ-PNV, have worked to support the militant formation and the Basque cause. During the ceremony held at Sabin Etxea, those thousands of women were represented by 500 militants who filled not only the assembly room at the EAJ-PNV headquarters, but also the lobby and the adjacent areas.

Grandmothers, mothers, daughters and granddaughters. Four generations of EAJ-PNV women, to whom Andoni Ortuzar referred as "the true conveyors of the militant ethos and the nationalist sentiment in so many Basque households", gathered in Bilbao to receive the gratitude and applause of the whole PNV for their work throughout the history of the nationalist party. That work has not always been in the public eye, or appreciated, or recognised, but it has been a titanic effort without which EAJ-PNV would not be what it is today: the dominant force of Basque nationalism and the depository of the greatest trust shown by the citizens of this nation called the Basque Country. Hard work in the batzokis (PNV social centres), at work, out and about or at home. During the Spanish Civil War, the period underground, the Transition or the present. Passing on the nationalist ethos to their sons and daughters, to their grandchildren; teaching Basque languages, bertsolaritza (improvised poetry) or dance classes; spending marathon sessions to help the ailing economy of the Municipal Assemblies, either by making omelettes or working at the bar in the Batzokis; actively participating in the electoral campaigns,  putting voting slips in envelopes, or hanging up posters in the streets. All those women received the tribute and were at the centre of the ceremony.