When the Second Republic was proclaimed on April 14, 1931, there was already widespread awareness in favor of Basque self-government, a consequence of the successive failures of Basque fueristas in their relations with the Spanish government after the Carlist wars. This political and social frustration had generated in the Basque Country, from 1876 onwards, a growing current of distrust towards Spanish political forces. There was a perceived need for an independent political line through a strictly Basque party that would assume the interests of the Basque Country, initiating a process of rediscovering its own cultural traits, especially the Basque language and culture.
Arturo Campión, a Navarrese, was one of the main promoters of this “pre-Basque nationalism,” characterized by a clear opposition between “Basque-Navarrese politics” and “Spanish politics.” Sabino Arana, founder of the EAJ-PNV, a lawyer born in Bilbao in 1865 and the son of a Carlist, shaped and projected Basque nationalism in 1892 with the motto “Bizkaia for its independence.” At the time of the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in April 1931, the EAJ-PNV, which had a strong presence particularly in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, advocated for the self-government of the Basque nation through a Statute of Autonomy.
Efforts to achieve this Statute began with extraordinary enthusiasm: on April 17, three days after the proclamation of the Second Republic, the Vizcayan town councils met in Gernika to “recognize the Republic as a legitimate expression of popular will” and “request a Basque republican government linked to the Spanish Republic.” However, the Spanish government's response was swift, indicating that the Statute of Autonomy should originate from the Spanish Cortes themselves. But the Basque municipalities were not deterred, and on May 8, they requested the Society of Basque Studies to draft a preliminary Statute of Autonomy, which was prepared in record time and delivered on May 31 to the so-called Commission of Basque Municipalities.
It is declared that the Basque Country constitutes a natural and legal entity with its own political personality, and as such is recognized the right to constitute and govern itself as an Autonomous State within the entirety of the Spanish State.
The Spanish government disliked the autonomous initiative coming from the municipalities rather than the Cortes, and even less the establishment of a kind of original sovereignty of the autonomous entities, as it considered the sovereignty of the State to be delegated. Furthermore, the unfortunate amendment regarding Church-State relations (Prieto: “we will not allow a Vaticanist Gibraltar”) significantly soured the atmosphere. Four hundred and twenty Basque mayors marched to Madrid and delivered the Statute project, known as “of Estella,” to the President of the Republic, Niceto Alcalá Zamora. But it was useless: in the Cortes of Madrid, during the sessions from September 22 to 25, Title 1 of the Constitution was approved, by virtue of which the structure and general principles of the Estella Statute were deemed “contradictory” to the Spanish Constitution. Thus, by Decree of December 8, 1931, it was established that the drafting of future Statute of Autonomy projects would necessarily have to conform to the Constitution in force. The direct consequence: the Basque-Navarrese minority withdrew the project, and the Estella Statute fell.
In January 1932, a meeting was called between the Management Commissions and a representation of the municipalities to draft a new Statute project in accordance with the Constitution. A Commission was appointed to draft the project, which completed its work on March 11, 1932. On June 19, 1932, all Basque municipalities met in Pamplona to approve this project, which was overwhelmingly endorsed in Araba, Bizkaia, and Gipuzkoa, but not in Navarra. It was later demonstrated that Navarra actually said YES to the Statute, as several commissioners from various Navarrese town councils voted against the project, even though their respective municipal corporations had given a favorable vote.
The EAJ-PNV then tried by all means to continue with the project, adapting it to the new situation. The Statute project was approved. Therefore, in theory, nothing prevented the rapid promulgation and entry into force of the Basque Statute of Autonomy. But this did not happen, as in the legislative elections held in Spain in November 1933, right-wing forces gained a majority, leading to a complete change in the situation with the beginning of the so-called “Black Biennium.” It is known that during this period, relations between Basque nationalists and the Spanish Government became increasingly strained, due to an anti-autonomist and even anti-Basque policy by the right.
The project remained forgotten until the triumph of the Popular Front in February 1936. Two months later, the Statute project was again presented in the Cortes, and in July 1936, the Commission concluded its report. On October 7, already in the midst of the civil war, the Law Approving the Statute of Autonomy for Euskadi was agreed upon. However, with the victory of fascist coup, all traces of Basque demands were destroyed, and the provinces of Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia were declared traitors.
The EAJ-PNV supported the Republic, freedom, democracy, and legality, opposing the coup with the means at its disposal. Honor, respect, and remembrance to its gudaris who died on the front, on the walls, in prisons, and under torture. The EAJ-PNV suffered 40 years of fascism's claw and repression, resisted the dictatorship in clandestinity, kept the torch of freedom, democracy, and self-government of Euskadi, and thus wrote in golden letters in the book of History its profoundly democratic character, stubborn in favor of Euskadi's self-government and the reconstruction of the Basque nation, humanist, frontal, and radically anti-fascist. A remembrance to our elders, a special one to uncle Benito Bujanda, machine gun lieutenant of the Saseta Battalion, killed in combat in Peña Lemona on June 2, 1937, another to uncle Gerardo Bujanda and my father Inosen Bujanda, also gudaris of the same Saseta Battalion, Beti Aurrera Company. Arias Navarro's happy “Spaniards, Franco is dead” marked the beginning of the return to freedom, democracy, and self-government for Euskadi. Until today, April 14, 2026. It is good to remember, not to forget. Katea ez da eten. Beti Aurrera, beti.
