THE BASQUE EXODUS AS A CONSEQUENCE OF IDEOLOGICAL PERSECUTION

On January 23rd, MEP Zarzalejos participated in the presentation in the European Parliament of the report “The Basque exodus as a result of ideological persecution” prepared by the Center for Studies, Training and Social Analysis CEU-CEFAS and led by the director of the Director of the CEU Observatory of Victims of Terrorism, Maria San Gil Noain.

The report carries out a study on the historical context of this Basque exile, showing that from 1976-1977 a particularly intense process of demographic collapse began in the Basque Country, which lasted until 1995-2000. The result, the report points out, is that some 180,000 native Spaniards have left the Basque lands, in net numbers, between the beginning of 1977 and 2022.

In the opinion of Zarzalejos, the exodus that took place in the Basque Country, together with the one that accompanied the Balkan war, is paradigmatic in the Europe of the 20th century after World War II. The MEP pointed out three phenomena that have accompanied this exodus. Firstly, the silence of a large part of Basque society that looked the other way and never sympathized with the suffering of these families, never publicly questioned the motives and reasons why these people were forced to leave their land.

Secondly, the exodus also responds to the phenomenon of the foreignization of half of the population in their own land that Basque nationalism encouraged. It was not only the threat of ETA terrorism, but Basque nationalism felt very comfortable with the departure of all those people who did not agree with its doctrine.

As a consequence of this exodus, nationalism took over all the spaces in the Basque Country. From the political point of view, ETA achieved one of its objectives, which was the political cleansing of the Basque Country. There was a structural change in the democratic base of the Basque Country, in its electoral census, achieving that only nationalism could win the elections.

Faced with this reality, Zarzalejos stressed the importance of keeping the memory of what has happened in the Basque Country and therefore welcomed the publication of this type of report. He encouraged to continue resisting and to support those who today in the Basque Country aspire to achieve a fully democratic system.