The Basque National Liberation Movement (Spanish : Movimiento de Liberación Nacional Vasco, MLNV; Basque: Euskal Nazio Askapenerako Mugimendua, "ENAM") was an umbrella term that comprised all social, political and armed organizations orbiting around the ideas of the illegal armed organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), proscribed internationally as a terrorist organisation. [1]
There are multiple definitions of the term. In the '80s, '90s and particularly in the early 2000s it was understood in a wider sense, as a synonym for the Basque Patriotic (Abertzale) Left, which pursues the same political goals to ETA, namely Basque independence and a socialist state. A narrower definition comprises ETA and those social and political organizations which are subservient or under the political influence of this organization. The narrower definition would exclude recently founded legal parties such as Amaiur, Bildu and Sortu which have renounced ETA's methods and publicly distanced themselves from this organization. These parties have filled the void left by political parties Herri Batasuna and Euskal Herritarrok among others, when they were included in the United States' list of terrorist organizations and formally dissolved by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2003. As a result, for much of the 2000s, the Abertzale left was left without political representation and it was during this period when the wider definition of MNLV was most applicable. The bulk of MLNV's constituency, political and social leaders have transitioned to the aforementioned legal parties, only those remaining organizations and individuals supporting, collaborating or subservient to ETA would be presently considered to belong to the MNLV. This is the case even though one of the Abertzale left's major causes is the rights of ETA prisoners, particularly their re-location to prisons to the Basque country. However, its political direction has been criticized by more hard-line members of this political space who demand a return to a more combative approach with the Spanish state.
Some of the most relevant organizations that can be considered to have formed part of this political current are listed below.
Batasuna was a Basque nationalist political party. Based mainly in Spain, it was banned in 2003, after a court ruling declared proven that the party was financing ETA with public money.
Basque nationalism is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation and promotes the political unity of the Basques, today scattered between Spain and France. Since its inception in the late 19th century, Basque nationalism has included Basque independence movements.
Herri Batasuna was a far-left Basque nationalist coalition in Spain. It was founded in 1978 and defined itself as abertzale, left-wing, socialist, and supported the independence of the Greater Basque Country. It was refounded as Batasuna in 2001 and subsequently outlawed by the Spanish Supreme Court for being considered the political wing of the separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA).
Euskal Herritarrok was a Basque independentist and socialist political party in the Basque Country. EH was banned in 2003 by the Supreme Court of Spain on the grounds that it sympathized with ETA.
Abertzale is a Basque term usually referring to people or political groups who are associated with Basque nationalism.
Arnaldo Otegi Mondragón is a Basque politician who is currently General Secretary of Basque nationalist party EH Bildu. He was member of the Basque Parliament for both Herri Batasuna and Euskal Herritarrok. He was a convicted member of the banned armed separatist group organization ETA in his early years. He was one of the key negotiators during the unsuccessful peace talks in Loiola and Geneva, in 2006.
The Herritarren Zerrenda is a Basque nationalist political party in Spain and France, created in 2004 to run in the European Parliament election. Since these elections were simultaneous throughout the European Union, and states were represented as single constituencies, Herritarren Zerrenda aspired for results at the national level in both countries.
The Communist Party of the Basque Homelands was a communist Basque separatist party in the Basque Country, Spain. The party was outlawed by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2008 after it was judicially proven to be part of Batasuna and, ultimately, ETA.
Batzarre is a political party in Navarre, Spain. It has a branch in the Basque Autonomous Community known as Zutik. It bids to win the political space to the left of the Basque nationalists and the Spanish socialists, the latter eroded for their long-running collusion with the conservative UPN government. It formed on 29 January 2011 the coalition Izquierda-Ezkerra along with Izquierda Unida de Navarra (IUN) and local Socialist figures disillusioned with the party's regional alliances.
Basque Nationalist Action is a Basque nationalist party based in Spain. Founded in 1930, it was the first Basque nationalist political party to exist running on a socialist program. On 16 September 2008, the party was outlawed by the Spanish Supreme Court based on ties with ETA. The Spanish ruling was appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which, after reviewing the question, upheld the Spanish courts on the matter.
Askatasuna is a Basque political party registered on 31 August 1998, outlawed in 2009 by the Audiencia Nacional under the 2002 Political Parties Law.
The 2009 Basque regional election was held on Sunday, 1 March 2009, to elect the 9th Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with a regional election in Galicia. It would be the first time that the elections for two of the Spanish "historical regions"—namely, those comprising Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country itself—were held simultaneously. This would evolve into an unwritten convention in subsequent years, with Basque and Galician elections being held concurrently in 2012, 2016 and 2020.
The Basque conflict, also known as the Spain–ETA conflict, was an armed and political conflict from 1959 to 2011 between Spain and the Basque National Liberation Movement, a group of social and political Basque organizations which sought independence from Spain and France. The movement was built around the separatist organization ETA, which had launched a campaign of attacks against Spanish administrations since 1959. ETA had been proscribed as a terrorist organization by the Spanish, British, French and American authorities at different moments. The conflict took place mostly on Spanish soil, although to a smaller degree it was also present in France, which was primarily used as a safe haven by ETA members. It was the longest running violent conflict in modern Western Europe. It has been sometimes referred to as "Europe's longest war".
Santiago Brouard or Santi Brouard was a doctor and Basque politician. He was one of the leaders of Herri Batasuna, and deputy mayor of Bilbao. He was killed by the Spanish government's death squad, the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL), in one of its highest-profile acts. Broaurd was shot by GAL gunmen Luis Morcillo and Rafael López Ocaña as he left his paediatric clinic in Bilbao.
EH Bildu, short for Euskal Herria Bildu is a left-wing, Basque nationalist, pro-independence political party active in the Spanish autonomous communities of Basque Country, Navarre and Burgos Province.
Abertzale left is a term used to refer to the parties or organizations of the Basque nationalist/separatist left, stretching from democratic socialism to communism.
Langile Abertzale Iraultzaileen Alderdia, was a Communist political party of the Southern Basque Country and Basque nationalist ideology that was born during the last years of the Francoist State as a result of a division of ETA. Its acronym, laia is also the Basque name of an agricultural tool.
Euskal Herriko Alderdi Sozialista was an illegal revolutionary socialist Basque political party, with presence in both Spanish Basque Country and the French Basque Country.
Basque Socialist Party or Basque Socialist Assembly was a socialist Basque political party, with presence in the Southern Basque Country. The party was illegal until 1978.
Joxe Pernando Barrena Arza is a Basque politician, former member of the Parliament of Navarre and former member of the European Parliament for Spain.