Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-12-13-Speech-3-287"
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"en.20001213.17.3-287"2
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".
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, first of all the ‘Basta Ya’ citizens’ initiative wishes to express its gratitude to this Parliament for the honourable recognition it is receiving today. This distinction is all the more notable given that we are not a prestigious NGO nor a veteran institutional movement, but simply a group of citizens of varying backgrounds, with no bureaucratic hierarchy nor even an organisational apparatus, who began working together a little less than a year ago. Our organisation includes teachers and workers, public employees and private individuals, religious and lay people, trade unionists, businesspeople, militant pacifists, artists, people working in the media, very well-known individuals and many who are completely unknown. I must admit that we are a bit of an anarchic group. We have no desire to make history, nor do we wish to endure at any cost. If only our initiative were to cease to be necessary tomorrow and we could all return to our peaceful daily lives.
Naturally, we accept that Basque nationalists can propose, by peaceful means, the creation of a new independent state that has never before existed, but we reject the idea that this political project from a particular party should be presented as the inalienable right of a whole people, and therefore become an indirect justification for violence.
Nor does it seem prudent to be permanently searching the historic past – or even the prehistoric past – for wrongs which justify the break-up of current democratic communities, or which are intended to demonstrate the incompatibility of people who have in fact lived together for centuries. As experience in other parts of Europe sadly shows, this is always eventually a way to justify violent conflict. This is something that one of the first thinkers of a united Europe, Erasmus of Rotterdam, warned against centuries ago, when he said in one of his adages: “If any title is considered a suitable reason to start a war, then anybody – amid so many vicissitudes in human affairs, so many changes – can hold such a title. What people has never been expelled or has never expelled anybody from its territory? How often have people emigrated from one place to another? How often have people been moved around as the chance result of treaties? Let the Paduans now reclaim Trojan soil, since Antenor was once Trojan! Let the Romans reclaim Africa and Spain since they were once Roman! We call inherited property what in fact is an elective administration. We do not have the same rights over men – who are free by nature – as we do over cattle.” That is what Erasmus said.
Ladies and gentlemen, as democrats, we are, of course, in favour of dialogue between different democratic parties, because democracy itself is embodied in that ongoing dialogue. But precisely because of our commitment to democratic dialogue, we reject the idea that dialogue can be forced through terrorist violence, that the political agenda of the citizens can be established by people who distort the uses of peaceful coexistence and that the laws which have been agreed in parliaments should be changed according to the wishes of murderers as a means of paying them to stop their murder.
We want to live in peace, but we also want to live in freedom. We refuse to replace a state of the citizens with a state of ethnic groups. That is why we have taken to the streets: to defend constitutional principles and shout at the terrorists: “¡
(That’s enough!). And, as well as thanking you for the recognition that this Sakharov Prize confers, we also invite the Members of the European Parliament to visit the Basque Country – not the official offices, but the streets, the bars, the shops, the companies, the small towns, the classrooms – so that you can see first-hand and without interference from propaganda how people live under threat and extortion, without the freedom to express their ideas; so that you may see for yourselves the truth of what we are condemning and then that you may not forget it and that you may help us to combat this scourge which the whole of this democratic Europe should feel to be its own.
We know that we are not important individually, but we believe that what unites and motivates us is important: the rejection of ETA’s criminal terrorism and explicit support for the Spanish rule of law, which today is being threatened by a totalitarian project for violent secession. We have taken to the streets and we have raised our voices because we are convinced that, when democracy is in danger, the citizens cannot hide behind their anonymity and wait passively for everything to be resolved within the higher echelons of political power. We do not wish to replace the legitimately established institutions, but we wish to persuade them to protect our rights and freedoms without making concessions to terrorists.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have come together out of solidarity with the victims of this murderous ideological fanaticism and also, in self-defence, against that same fanaticism. Our tragic situation is unusual in this democratic Europe. The Basque Country is not an exotic region strangled by injustice and inequality like so many places in the so-called third world, but is one of the most highly-developed regions in the European Union, and its quality of life is one of the most balanced. Within the Spanish State, the Basque region enjoys very broad autonomy, with its own government and parliament, full control of its taxation, bilingual educational competences, two of its own television channels, one in the Basque language, etc.
There is no question that the Basques suffered considerable violations of their political and cultural liberty during the Franco dictatorship, as did all the other citizens of Spain. However, when democracy was established, an extraordinary effort was made to reconcile the whole country, beginning with a general amnesty for political crimes committed during the Franco period, which allowed, more than 20 years ago, any member of ETA who wished it to be legally reintegrated, even if they were responsible for violent crimes.
Nevertheless, ETA’s activity has not ceased since then. There have now been more than 700 people killed during the democratic era. Today, in the Basque Country, there is no security or freedom of expression or political association for the majority of citizens. Non-nationalist elected officials are murdered, as well as businesspeople, journalists, members of the security forces or private individuals who have expressed themselves in any way against the project to impose independence.
We are not only talking about murders. Numerous establishments, homes and vehicles have been set on fire. There is daily extortion of traders and professional people, there are countless forms of harassment and threats against people considered to be ‘
that is to say, those who dare to publicly express their support for the rule of law that has come into force by constitutional means. Many people feel compelled to leave in order to avoid worse trouble or because they cannot bear the pressure of living in an atmosphere of intimidation. Many others have to resign themselves to leading their lives accompanied by police escorts and cannot walk around freely with their children or go to public places without taking every type of precaution.
In the Basque Country, in the middle of a democratic Europe, we currently have dozens of Salman Rushdies. Fear reigns. It is a palpable fear which invades people’s daily lives and makes them speak in whispers or hide what they really think, just as people did during the worst periods of the Franco dictatorship.
We, the members of the ‘Basta Ya’ initiative, know that ETA is, without doubt, the main culprit behind these evils. However, we are also convinced that ETA is not an isolated phenomenon, and that it is perpetuated as a result of a political climate which is partly the fault of the nationalist authorities who have governed the country for more than 20 years. The members of ETA are not aliens who arrived from another planet to do evil deeds, but they are young people brought up with ethnic fanaticism, with a hatred of more than half of their fellow citizens and of everything that is considered Spanish; young people who have been imbued with a distorted view of history and crazy anthropological ideas, which makes them feel like victims and thus turns them into executioners."@en1
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"Basta ya!”"1
"españolistas’"1
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