We have visited the Historical Memory Document Center of Salamanca, where the civil war archives of the Basque Government are located. Observing the pre-war documents, we conclude that, in our country, Basque nationalism is undergoing a paraphasic process, undoubtedly related to messages and policies, organized by the leaders of their organizations or parties.

Activists and supporters of the pre-war PNV declared themselves patriots. They did so by saying that they appreciated or loved each other’s relationship. A patriot is one who loves his homeland and works and is even willing to risk his life to defend it. This was shown by these warriors at the Battle of 1936.

After the war, members of the PNV rejected the term patriot or patriot and began to take the name of party members. Two different names for militants who want to be from the same party and have a very different meaning. Thus, the concept of Basque patriot was replaced by the concept of party member, with a very different meaning. Since then it is not the interests of the country first, but of the party. Anasagasti says that Irujo said that statements such as “the last to get in line” show that the party is an end in itself, and that there is nothing above the party’s interests.

It was during the time of President Ardanza that the juridical-political concept of the Basque people (Pueblo Vasco) began to be rejected, replacing it with the despicable concept of “Basque society”. It was Mario Onaindia’s paraphrase that began by asking hard what the “people” were, something that was always mentioned in the communiqués. Without delay, the political class, including the People’s Union, began to use the term “Basque society” (Basque society). Peoples and nations are subjects of international law, and societies are subjects only of the statutes of the Socrates.

Also described as aphasic speech disorder is Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS), or Foreign Accent Syndrome, which follows a posttraumatic brain injury. If we bring this FAS to Basque politics, that’s where it appeared for many years when it was said “Patria o muerte es mi destino” with a Cuban accent, Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, FARC accent... that introduced us to the Basques from the internationalist vanguard, whether patriotic or non-patriotic. Another FAS was to suppress the desire for an independent Basque state and replace it with a free associated state of Puerto Rico. Always looking for bad models out there, making their mistakes and frustrating the local model, even though our territorial division is there.

After many years of paraphasia and FAS, Basque patriotism – without a doubt, those who drive are not all who are (patriots) and are not all who are – favors the right to decide. We are again affected by paraphasia: Instead of exercising the right of self-determination enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, we have once again adopted a heading without any political or legal content: the right to decide.

The Basques can never, by invoking the right to decide, base themselves on the law, which the Catalan Government has done with its Referendum Law of Self-Determination.The right of peoples to self-determination is enshrined in international law of the United Nations and in the jurisprudence of the Hague Tribunal. These rules and treaties ratified by the Spanish State are, in fact, the fundamental rights referred to in Article 10 of the Spanish Constitution, on which their right to self-determination is based.

Our approach to paraphasia, which, in the opinion of some, is only provisional and pedagogical, is only confusing for the Basques and pushes us away from the idea of an independent Basque Country within the European Union.

Xabier Zarandona Zubero / Iñigo Jaca Arrizabalaga

From the doctor