It is still too early to know what will be the position or historical reading that the COVID-19 pandemic will have in human history, as the same starting pandemic is not over. But there is no doubt that it will be an important milestone in the trajectory of mankind, because it is spreading and having a profound influence throughout the world, but also because it is taking place at a very crucial juncture. The being of people, humanity and the world itself, an opportunity that is beginning to be transformed in depth: artificial intelligence and the development of new technologies, the translation of nature to the limits of sustainability, the transformation of classic political-social paradigms and the transformation of the ways of relating to people (let us not forget that reeuskaldunization is based on forms of relationship between people), to quote four factors.
There is no doubt that this historic juncture affects us altogether. It affects us from all angles and, of course, also from the point of view of language. When we are still far from completing the process of reeuskaldunization of the Basque Country, the agitations of the pandemic and the conjuncture of change are shaking the columns that we have built with difficulty in this process. As the Basque world has denounced in recent months, the facts are showing the vulnerability of the Basque country. It should not be forgotten that the red alarms were already on in Basque activity before the pandemic, at least some. For those who want to see that we have in view the indicators that normalization is not going well, the indicators that have worsened with the pandemic.
"It must be a year to recover the illusion and passion and revive the struggle for Euskaldunization"
Having been spinning around in the roundabout in recent years, the pandemic has put us at the door of choice: to make a significant qualitative and quantitative leap in the normalization process to make the progress in recent decades gain, or to fall back on the backward trend.
From EHE we believe that to make that leap it is necessary to put the Basque in the center, and it is time. We need a new language policy that has that perspective and that post-pandemic puts us at the starting point for this, starting this same year 2021.
This requires institutional, political and social actors to place Euskera at the centre of their activity, to think and act at last in Euskera and Euskera. Likewise, this requires that the Basque country be at the centre of the areas that constitute the axis of normalization (transmission of the Basque country, administration, the world of work, the media, culture, leisure...). Since today, without delays or excuses.
To achieve this, the Basque Cultural Activity Council has begun to take steps to build social and political consensus on linguistic policies. On the basis of co-responsibility, Basque cultural activity invites institutions, agents and individuals to take the leap from adherence to commitments. Well, this year we will know the important consensus among the actors for Euskaldunisation, which will undoubtedly mark a before and a after in the process of normalisation.
At the same time, this year will be the challenge of the Euskaltzales to strengthen the struggles for the Euskaldunization of the local level. The challenge of promoting the activation of Euskaltzales to denounce and overcome the structural oppression that prevents us from living in Euskera and to make visible the daily violations of the linguistic rights of Euskaldunes. This will be achieved by creating concrete quarrels of people in people and of scope in the field.
All this without the external intervention of the French and Spanish States. That is the essence of the linguistic conflict that we have: the linguicidal imposition of states. Only the Basques must decide what kind of language policy we want to develop in Euskal Herria (along with all the other issues). And for that we need full sovereignty. This will be one of the main challenges of the Euskera movement in the coming years: to understand that in order to live in Euskera sovereignty is essential, and vice versa, the need to place Euskera at the center of the sovereign process. In view of this, EHE will make a significant contribution this year.
It must be a year to recover the illusion and passion and revive the struggle for Euskaldunization. Within a few decades, looking back, 2021 will not be just the year we leave the pandemic or the time when a symbolic start was set to a new era of humanity. In this corner of the world, let us remember 2021 as a year that marked a significant leap in the reeuskaldunization of the Basque Country.