Press Review: Basque Nationalists Demand Referendum

The Basque regional government presented its proposals for increased autonomy at the weekend. Even before the details were clear, however, the Madrid press had thoroughly rubbished them.

The Madrid newspapers were unanimous about the plan by the regional premier, Juan José Ibarretxe, to reform the 1979 Guernica statute of Basque autonomy. The Ibarretxe plan, they agreed, was designed to lead to Basque independence and, according to some, was a direct result of the connivance of Mr Ibarretxe's Basque Nationalist party with Eta, which has killed more than 800 people in its violent campaign for a separate state.

"This is the culmination of an objective jointly agreed with Eta in 1998," the conservative daily ABC fumed. To El Mundo, the plan could mark the beginning of the end of Spain as we know it. "The approval by the Basque government of the Ibarretxe plan is equivalent to the unilateral declarations of Slovenia and Croatia, which ended with the disintegration of Yugoslavia," it said.

El Pais said the plan was being presented by Mr Ibarretxe alongside a threat: "Either you accept this or we will demand independence." Even that, it said, was really a trick because the Ibarretxe plan itself would mean Basque independence.

And those were just the editorial columns. Scorn, ridicule and disgust were poured on the plan by politicians and newspaper columnists alike, despite Mr Ibarretxe's assurances that he was not trying to secure independence.

Did nobody have a good word for Mr Ibarretxe or for those Basques who voted him into power in 2001? The Basque press, unsurprisingly, was more sympathetic. Some observers thought the Spanish prime minister, José María Aznar, was the bad guy for stubbornly refusing to give Basques what they want. "The absence of any desire on Mr Aznar's part to confront the Basque political problem in a realistic fashion contrasts with Tony Blair's attitude in Ulster," complained Deia. "The insults hurled by the People's party leadership against Basque nationalism and the Basque institutions have now reached levels of irrational aggression."

Mr Ibarretxe, meanwhile, told the Basque regional television station ETB that his plan for a referendum on turning the Basque country into a "free associate" of Spain would bring peace to the troubled region. "A serene and calm debate will make Eta and violence disappear once and for all," he said, reminding people that he had pledged not to call a referendum on his plan without Eta first giving up violence. "We are not talking about splits, secession or independence," he said. "We are talking about reaching an agreement that allows Spain and the Basque country to live together."

Mr Ibarretxe's proposals require the approval of the central parliament in Madrid - and, quite probably, some rewriting of Spain's constitution - so it seems clear his plan will never be approved. "I can't begin to understand why [he has] embarked on an initiative that is clearly set to go nowhere," said Francisco Rubio Llorente in El Pais.

"What [the Basque nationalists] are interested in is not the objective, but the path towards it," answered Patxo Unzueta in the same newspaper. The Ibarretxe plan, he claimed, gave new meaning to a nationalist cause that was in danger of running out of things to ask for, given the autonomy the region already enjoys. It provided Basque nationalists with a fresh identity, a new cause to fight for and, as long as Madrid blocked the plan, a fresh sense of outrage to fuel their mistrust of Spain's central government.

That was why Mr Ibarretxe had given himself two long years to try to bring the plan to fruition. "The longer they have this unreachable goal, then the greater the task is for the nationalists and the more upset and satisfied their [followers] will be," said Unzueta.

Fernando Onega, in Barcelona's La Vanguardia, came to a similar conclusion. "The worst thing about the Ibarretxe plan is its intention to provoke a no from the state in order to give added legitimacy to nationalism," he said. "The Ibarretxe plan, apparently written in the cause of peace, is giving ideological ammunition to violence. Turning it down will add gasoline to the fire." Onega said he would "never understand, when this was so clear in advance, how things have been allowed to reach this precipice. Somebody will have to be responsible before history."