The day to day promises to remain a marked date of a white stone in the Spanish basque country

The day to day promises to remain a marked date of a white stone in the Spanish basque country. With the enthronement of Patxi Lopez, the local leader of the Socialist Party, at the head of the regional government, the Euskadi is reflected for the first time since the end of the Franco regime and the restoration of democracy in Spain with a "lehendakari" non-nationalist. To add the spectacular to the event, the new power in place has negotiated the support of parliamentarians of the popular party, which inherited, in return for its support of the Presidency of the ballot issue basque Assembly after the elections of March 1! Opposed harshly to Madrid, the enemy brothers of the Spanish political scene were able to silence their dispute to seize the historic opportunity to offer the Euskadi alternating after thirty years in power uninterrupted for the basque nationalist party (PNV). José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has made stone building by agreeing on this occasion, to weaken for the three next years the position of his Government which lacks seven seats in the national Parliament to reach an absolute majority. The Socialist Party in power could previously count on the support of the representatives of the Basque nationalist party to pass its legislation.

The emergence of two "constitutionalistes" at the head of the two main political institutions Basque including one Lopez, surname hispanisant if it is, to the Supreme position responsible for! is an unimaginable event in the basque country again a year ago. It is a great lesson in democracy for those who "deny", again, in Euskadi, the death of Franco and still see a dictatorship in the Spain. It is the hope out of ambient bigotry in a region where "euskara" and the "Ikurrina" language and Basque flag, have too often been used as symbols of exclusion. It is also a small revenge for 1,000 people, elected nationalist, leaders of business, artists, intellectuals, journalists etc. sentenced to live, on the day the day, with the body guards, as threatened by the terrorists of ETA. See several of their companions in misfortune access to positions of responsibility is the best reward for the courage displayed all these years by those who chose to remain in the country when other irresistible pressure, migrated lasse war. It is estimated more than 125.000 people, or 5 of the population, the number of people who have chosen the political exile between 1980 and 2005. What country can afford to let go a part of its elite without respond and tackle the roots of evil

Warned for the first time in the polls last year, in the Spanish general elections which it lost more than 120,000 votes from the election of 2004, the PNV, which remains the first political formation of Euskadi, visibly not to feel the fatigue of the Basques to the violence of ETA and the attitude of confrontation permanent of its leaders with Madrid. It did not equate misunderstanding of much of the population, aware of living in one of the richest regions of Europe with the greatest degree of political and economic autonomy is, but also forced to reside in the last place of the "Old Continent" where still persists a local terrorist threat! Sad record for a PNV, which divided between supporters of an autonomist line and defenders of a sovereignist way, was never clearly marked differences with the supporters of extremism. As evidenced by the attitude of its current leaders who feel they have been "stolen" election victory because Spanish justice prohibited the participation in the last election of the left abertzale, traditional political showcase of ETA. This has led the terrorist organization to request its troops to choose abstention (appeal followed by some 100,000 voters) and thereby depriving the PNV any possibility to enjoy a majority in the regional Parliament to form a new Government even depend on the votes of the representatives of the friends of ETA as happened by the past.

But what is happening today in Euskadi could well be a lesson for all of the Spain of autonomies. Because the same day that the basque election, voters in Galicia, tired of linguistic fundamentalism of the team in place, referred in the opposition coalition led by the local Socialists with the support of the Galician Nationalist bloc. And a similar punishment depends on the nose to the ruling coalition in the Balearic Islands where the imposition of catalan in the life of every day, under pressure from the nationalists of the Majorcan Union, began to upset a part of the population. Even Catalonia where pro-independence ERC saw their parliamentary representation shrink in Madrid from 8 to 3 seats in the general elections of 2008 could be affected by the phenomenon. While the Spain sinks into a deep economic crisis, the public expects its local rulers that they spend more time to solve their problems and less to fight with Madrid to widen their prerogatives.