It is almost traditional that the Partido Popular goes on a long siesta during the summer month of August, but even they managed to wake up in the light of what Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the Basque terror group ETA had cooked up: trying to put into place something that the Prime Minister had promised the terrorists: Navarra would become party of the Basque Country.
Navarra, the single-province autonomy in northern Spain, is neighbour to the Basque country, being three provinces that make up today’s Euzkadi, whereas any true Basque nationalist, wiping an honest tear from his eye, would tell you that there are really seven Basque provinces, the three actual, three more across the French border, and Navarra, whose capital city of Pamplona should become the capital of a newly emerging Basque country proper. Heady dreams. This is the vision that ETA has, a Marxist (oh yes) country in the Pyrenees. Euskal Herria.
In Navarra, the traditional parties, the PP (which has run the province for the last twenty years) is called the UPN, the Unión del Pueblo Navarro. The socialists here are the PSN and the independents are the Navarra Yes party – known by their name in Basque, Nafarroa Bai. The results in the last elections, held in late May, gave the conservatives a simple majority with 22 deputies, 12 each for the socialists and the independents; while other small parties, the Izquierda Unida and the conservative CDN collected two deputies each.
The UPN (plus the CDN) were 24 and the others, together, came to 26. The question of course was, could the ‘others’ actually ‘come together’ to form a government. Then came a harder question: were the Socialists ready to power-share with a group that wants Navarra to join (lead) the Basque Country, and what would be the reaction to this nationally.
One of the first people to speak out about this was former Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, doing so in the pages of a friendly newspaper. However, what should not be forgotten is that it was he who was mainly responsible for causing so much upset amongst the Navarran Socialist party, leaving it morally and almost mortally wounded. After losing over half of its members the party became a political joke in Navarra, and appeared to be wandering in the desert, despite some members of the party managing to retain their seats as mayors.
Selling Out
This is how things were when the Prime Minister embarked on his current programme of everyone and everything against the PP, and the Navarran Socialists took good note of what it meant for them: everyone against the UPN Party. Incapable of taking power on its own merit, the Socialist Party of Navarra started to play with the idea of handing Navarra over to the Basque Country, whilst others objected vociferously. However what became clear was that in order to hang onto power, they were prepared to undertake this type of surrender, and that was just the beginning.
By early August, the party was ready to form a government with the nationalists, a very dangerous game for Spain, the ‘constitutionalists’ and, indeed, the Socialist party itself (national elections are coming up, and the PSOE in Madrid is fearful of being seen to be selling off bits of Spain in exchange for ephemeral moments of power).
Today the Navarran Socialist party is without doubt the most corrupt branch of the Socialist party in Spain, for it has now stopped being a party linked with the very identity and independence of Navarra, and has started to back local laws that in the end could lead to a Navarran surrender to the Basques. In the end, it was the Navarran Socialists who had to make some sort of stand: either they caved in to pressure to take some power-sharing or they took a position of respecting the Autonomy and the protection afforded to it in the Spanish Constitution. In the end, then chose to go with the nationalists and it was Madrid that ordered them to back down.
We will do almost anything to ‘spite the Right’, but not quite!
Felipe Gonzalez managed to destroy the Navarran Socialist Party. Then along came Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and ordered that what was left of the party should start negotiations with ETA, and in the process try and destroy whatever alternative policies could be unveiled or undertaken by the UPN. If this movement continues, the Navarran Socialists will once again be sidelined, and this is clearly dreadful news, for the Socialists, for Navarre, Spain as a whole and even the PP. Now, Madrid has changed tack, forcing the socialists to abstain in the final round of voting for the Navarre presidency, leaving Miguel Sanz, the UPN, together with the support of the CDN, as the president with ‘a simple majority’.
As a result of this ‘intervention’ from Madrid, the Navarra socialist leader, Fernando Puras, promptly quit and other members of the party walked out as well – perhaps to form a more radical party for the next elections. The surviving socialists, together with the IU and the Nafarroa Bai goons, promise a tricky opposition.
It now remains an open question as to whether the Socialists will nationally come to their senses or not.
