Much has been written and spoken about the legitimacy and opportunity of the referendum to exercise the right of self-determination. But, on the contrary, I will try to link up with the issue from a logical point of view.

It can be read in the UN texts that the right to self-determination belongs to the peoples. Under this right, each people can choose its own political nature. So far, the vast majority agree. But here begins the fraudulent game.

Discrepancies arise in the best of cases around the question of who the members of the people are, and in the worst, deception or ideological domination. The lack of a legal definition of the term ‘people’ does not facilitate the issue, which is in the interests of the States. In fact, the Constitutional Council of France ruled in 1991 that its Constitution only recognized the French people. But well, the existence of the Basque people has been evidence throughout history and today, at least, as long as we continue to claim.

Who makes up the Basque people? Everyone living in the Basque Country? Anyone who feels Basque? Let's see. Those who feel Spanish or French are LOYAL to their people (if any, to the state, which has it); they would not consent to submit to another and would defend their language from the attacks of English. Normal, right? Yes.

What happens when those Spaniards and French people live in the Basque Country, which in many cases were born here, have many generations lived there, and have always said and taught them “Here is Spain!” or “Ici c’est la France!”? Many will say that they are also Basques, that they feel Basques. That is also the problem! In fact, ERE is situated as a pillar of the balance, on the French/Spanish left and on the Basque right.

But the balance only knows 3 states: on one side (left), the perfect balance (the two equal) and on the other side (right). Following the principle of loyalty, whoever is in perfect balance should have the same loyalty both to the French or Spanish state and to the Basque people, and if, with logical effect, it is in favour of the independence of the former, it should also be in favour of the Basque people. What happens is that that perfect balance is very difficult to detect in physics and more in politics. But good. Let's admit that somebody lives that perfect state of balance. What would you vote for in a referendum on self-determination in favour of Euskal Herria? I would certainly vote YES, because it feels like a member of one people and another.

However, those who feel themselves to be members of the French or Spanish peoples, i.e. those who are mostly or entirely on the left side of the balance, would NOT vote, as they are more loyal to France or Spain than to the Basque people. Therefore, by logic, since they do not feel themselves to be members of the Basque people, or only in an unbalanced way (regionalist, autonomist, associative, …), how could they have the right to vote if the right of self-determination belongs to that people? In other words, would the French and the Spaniards accept that a foreigner should vote in their elections?

On the other hand, returning to the right of the balance, that is to say of those who feel Basques, what are we going to do a referendum, because we cannot (if we are healthy of the head) vote against our freedom?

Finally, it should be remembered that, should the referendum be organised, France and Spain would be the competent ones (because we do not have our State). And when we know that “governments organize referendums to achieve their political goals and therefore only organize them when the organizer can give the result he expects” (Stephen Tierney, Director of the University of Law in Edinburgh) and “most referendums are controlled and pro-hegemonic at the same time” (Arend Lijphart, Democrats: Patterns of Majoritarian and Consensus Government in Twenty-One Countries – Yale University Press 1984, and Matt Qvortrup, Are Referendums Controlled and Pro-hegemonic? 2000, ), we should not be crazy to get into that path. We have no shortage of examples, and we will soon have another in the Canary Islands with the third and last referendum on self-determination to be organised by the French State on 12 December.