Celebrate Easter before Palm Sunday

Fer Pasqua abans de Rams is an old Catalan saying applicable to various situations. Josep Pla wrote “ La Monserrateta ha fet pasqua abans de rams ” referring to a girl who had become pregnant before having a marriageable boyfriend, something socially reproached at the time but which is acceptable today. The expression is powerful and the always expeditious Castilians assimilated it by reducing it to “hacer la pascua”. I asked the help of Professor Juan Luis Goikoetxea to find a similar saying in Basque and the result that I put in the hands of the reader is: “ Herriko haizeak jo baino lehen, iparra galdu ”, that is: “Lose the north, before the south wind arrives”. The aversive relationship of the Basques with the southern winds is well known, to the point that the Old Charter of Bizkaia considered it an attenuating circumstance for crimes committed under the influence of the south wind. Losing the north before the south wind arrives is therefore like having Easter before Palm Sunday. And, as I can tell you, the EAJ-PNV has done something of that in its process of internal renewal. I do not intend to be original, since many observers, analysts and activists have put their finger on that sore.

The process of renewing the positions is being carried out with a caution that borders on pusillanimity, as if, faced with the difficulties facing the party, the only solution was to continue playing with the same ball, but leaving certain veteran players on the bench. True, those veterans exercised a moral leadership governed by practical convenience for many years, so they necessarily lost their validity. Even though they dedicated themselves to building by listening, it seemed as if they heard impossible things: moist roots breathing, fruit sweating, the heartbeats of animals...

Michael Herr, one of the best reporters of the Vietnam War, called this phenomenon clairaudience , that is, an excess of auditory perception generated by the fear of the Vietcong enemy lurking in the thick jungle. The EAJ-PNV's listening process was contaminated by the stage fright of knowing that it was a party in a phase of ebb and flow, losing voters in droves, a precarious militant life and with a lurking presence of the Basque left that they are not knowing how to counteract. Woe to those who have eyes but do not see, and ears but do not hear! In these circumstances, gossip and rumours thrive, reducing the whole crisis to a confrontation between married couples or a medieval struggle between family clans and jauntxos . As if that were not enough, to run the show there are devoted self-promoters who lead a process without fervour with a reassuring business as usual or here everything remains the same, here nothing happens. So all is frowning looks, and members who, faced with difficulties, stammer that there is nothing to be done. Fervor is not everything, but without fervor little can be done. At what crossroads did fervor go astray?

There is time available for that repair unless the general elections are brought forward.

Orthopaedic remedies were sought: opinions from academics, analysis from consultancies, reports from ideological prescribers. A lot of paper and no results. “There is no end to writing many books, and much study is a weariness of the flesh,” warns Ecclesiastes, 12:12. And we continue down the same path of confusion when we find out that the Basque Government has commissioned a consultancy to draft the industrial plan. Are there not capable people within the Administration to carry it out? Is there no qualified militancy to analyse, debate and propose an ideological body and a political strategy? I believe that the EAJ-PNV needs a deep introspective look. “I looked inside myself and found a whole world” Goethe makes young Werther say. This look inward is a gradual process that demands time, integrity, simplicity and distance from noise. This entire inner world is the political history of the PNV itself, its practice throughout more than a century of successes and disappointments, the integrity and integrity of its leaders, who were always clear that they served an ideal without expecting material reward. If the EAJ does not put this into practice and does not achieve what we could call a refoundation of the party, it should prepare to fall behind, reduced to a shadow of itself. The process of internal renewal will end on March 29 and 30 at the general assembly to be held in San Sebastian. The leaders will be renewed, some not so new, whose main task should be to refound a party that brings up to date the “Euskadi is the homeland of the Basques.” In these times of confusion, when the truth does not count – all of humanity turning on the hinge of a destiny led by millionaires and political satraps – national identity and the social cohesion that this identity binds are our greatest strength and consolation. To value nationalism, patriotism, is to differentiate it from its evil twins: chauvinism and xenophobia, which are widely aired by the world's greats and their acolytes on the left and right. Nothing is more similar to Trump's chauvinism than Putin's great Russian nationalism; nothing is more similar to the xenophobia of Hungarian President Viktor Orbán than that of Alice Wiedel, leader of the neo-Nazi AfD.

The EAJ-PNV needs a deep introspective look

I believe I understand the convenience of holding a general assembly to renew the leaders before refounding a party that is in crisis: it is about weathering the storm while keeping the crew in check. I do not know if the officers in command will be right. In other difficult circumstances, Xabier Arzalluz proposed to head into the storm and stay on course. Of course it was advice, almost an order, for a ship subjected to external onslaught, but with a crew united in adversity. And so the Lehendakari Ibarretxe emerged triumphant. Now times are more difficult because the ship is taking on water, the frames are creaking and it must be taken to the shipyard for a major repair that includes a new ice-breaking bow. There is time available for this repair, unless the general elections are brought forward, which would catch the PNV off guard.

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The process of renewal has begun without prior political debate, only nominations for positions. “Herriko haizeak jo baino lehen, iparra galdu ”; “to lose the north before heeding the winds of the people”, “to celebrate Easter before Palm Sunday” –even the chosen calendar (29-30 March, before Palm Sunday) confirms this–, but even so the PNV has the opportunity to re-found itself and to go on to call itself, act and be the Basque National Party, Eusko Alderdi Nazionala. These personal reflections from a non-affiliated party contradict that article by a burukide that warned against external interference in the PNV debate. I hope they do not take them in that way, because if they did I myself would be “celebrating Easter” before Palm Sunday, which is not what I intend at all.