How to train the feeling? Despite the fact that some people deny this fact, the Gernika Statute of Autonomy begins by affirming that there is a political entity called ‘Basque people or Euskal-Herria, as an expression of their nation’. The thought that can be formed within the framework of the Basque society in its transformation and character, like other social and political realities, since they are more and more global and open, aims to answer the question of what it really means, what it does. The Basques evoke for us today, in the 21st century, an appeal to Euskal Herria.
Politically, it refers to the dimension that surrounds the borders of two States (France and Spain) and, in turn, adds two autonomous communities (Navarra and the Basque Country) to one of them. For me, Euskal Herria is above all a tangible reality, an expression of affection shared by different people. To overcome the idea of political boundaries from the seat of two States and the existence of differentiated political communities, the majority of Basque citizens feel at home, in our vital territory, when in Baztán, in Iruña, in Baiona, in Bilbao, in. Donostia, at San Juan Pied de Port or in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
This is an intimate and authentic perception from the emotional side. Under this type of movement there is a large part of the citizens that inhabits and coexists in the territory with which, for institutional or political reasons, many times in the past to establish differences of accent, from taxes and not a. exclusive), we feel identified and recognized. We are an integral part of Euskal Herria, as a concept of assembly, part of a personal and true sense, thus transcending the concept of political boundaries. It is also, above all, the territory of the Basque language and in which the truth of our culture develops, which must revolve around the precious idea of remaining united in diversity.
In fact, the Euskal Herria could be defined as a nation of culture, which, if it had been organized as a political entity, would not be a simple or single state, but would be articulated as a confederation, as to the political origins of the different peoples or nations that make it up. her, and recognizing her uniqueness.
This is only possible in order to build the idea of a kind of open, non-exclusive nation, in the valuable and defined argument of the Canadian political scientist Charles Taylor, when, referring to the debate on Quebec, he brings to light, if a dream. For some, the legitimate national desire of someone becomes a nightmare for other members of the same community, such a political plan can never be implemented. Again, the sentence “don’t impose, don’t stop” carries a great lesson closely linked to the challenge of coexistence, which empathically and reciprocally recognizes the different and can thus form and share a Basque identity that can integrate plurality. the feelings of belonging and knowledge that coexist in this complex society.
Decisive, in a complex and interdependent world like today’s, always co-constructing. And every co-decision entails recognition, responsibility and mutual demand for those who share it. Hence, many societies, whether states or sub-state communities, articulate their internal pluralism through cohesive mechanisms, constituting established links that can only be changed by consensus.
There is no democratic society without respect for legality, but even if that law prohibits its eventual reformation according to the democratic principle of modification of the current situation open to incorporating new demands and obligations according to the changes of values that they undertake. place in the society of transformation. All the national identities that exist in the Basque society have equal legitimacy and the right to be included in the decision-making process, all must work to integrate their respective positions, all must move to achieve the goal as necessary as they wish. by citizens., Batava.
Nations neither disappear nor succeed States; they are not rivals of these, but each from an asymmetric dependence. Plural knowledge does not remove the concept of the State; on the contrary, it adapts and modernizes according to the emerging new conceptions of the exercise of domination in the 21st century.
The strength of democracy fundamentally depends on a component that is intangible and strategic: the counterweight of solidarity, which value can only be built from the respect and knowledge of many and many identities, inside and outside the States.
