As I said in the previous article, before addressing Loiola's conversations the main trunk of the Left Abertzale made a paradigm shift. It went from an agreement between sovereigns to an agreement with political rivals. A similar solution was the proposal and made by international intermediaries for Ireland. In Euskal Herria they represented this pact. This was not feasible.

When the situation is unsolvable, unresolved attempts are often required. Loiola's was one of those unsolvable attempts. Surely also Lizarra-Garazi, and certainly the Ibarretxe Plans were unfeasible. In these cases there are three options: dispense and not hinder; prepare the initial steps to an alternative path or undertake an unresolved path, as honest as possible, thinking that this path could open another door in the future.

All this happened in the three processes mentioned, and there were also behaviors of the three types mentioned. Some adopted the three conducts at once, because in the complexity of the political scenarios of the time it was hard to imagine the right direction.

The intention of most of those involved in these trials was sincere, I do not doubt. The development of ETA was a serious problem for most political actors. Somehow, this historical stage had to be overcome and each agent tried, from his point of view, to reach a solution that could be “dignified”.

So things, perhaps by surprise, at a certain time, the PSOE realized that ETA could not put “price” at its end. The door was closed.

Old car

In Ireland, they used an IRA metaphor. IRA was an old car that wanted to lead to "scrap". By taking him to junk, the IRA wanted to collect a certain amount of “money” (political content). The IRA believed that it would achieve this at a good price, but international intermediaries told it that it should be much smaller. Agreement was reached.

Also in our country, at the beginning of the Loiola talks, the three participating agents thought that scrap dealers could pay something. But at one point the PSOE realized that instead of paying scraps, it could be charged because the correlation of forces was much better than the assumption.

It was too great a temptation for the PSOE and grabbed him. Prepare all state and timber mechanisms! Destination: The unconditional final dissolution of the end of ETA, without any counter-argument, even knowing that this end would prolong suffering for all.

The truth is that that was the only option by then. The Spanish State did not accept anything else and the civil servants of the independence left and other sovereign agents could not accept the existence of an armed group in a hypothetical negotiation in which the representation of Basque society should have political content. Not as diners or guarantors.

It passed that rough page of our history, even though some agents, and the state, above all, spread that shadow of Loiola so that we may remain lost in those darkness.

Possible futures

As in these times, it is not clear what can be done. As in that past, the correlation of forces is not an independent issue and, furthermore, our country and our international context have changed radically. No one has Harry Potter's magic stick at hand. It would therefore be an intractable mistake to address a single one-way strategy.

Harry Potter can confuse illusion with illusionism. Without solid foundation, compact, durable structure and executable programs we can lose ourselves in Platonism. It is also absolutely platonic to represent the PSE-PSN, left vasophile; the independentist Ortuzar, the Navarre sovereign UPN or pacifist Macron.

Those who believe that the magic stick can become the union of a strict director are also wrong. Because the wide and varied Basque orchestra reduces its creative ability anyone who thinks it has to be united.

It is also a mistake to think that historical evolution will be produced through facts in a straight line, as it also moves the top. However, this does not mean that concrete routes cannot be addressed because without them there is no movement.

On the other hand, if we tell the people who are going to start their journey that the only thing they will know throughout their lives is “ecstasy”, they will not move. It would also be an irreversible mistake. It is precisely for this reason that some tips were whispered off the dome of Loiola.

Fellow travellers

A well-known journalist wrote in 2020: "Comes out of the ETA equation." Fortunately, we are at the moment of creating new equations, logarithms and trigonometries, but we must know that the result of all calculations will be the unknown. We know who's going to walk trying to erase all the calculations from the board and who can't be the travel companion.

If in the politics of Hego Euskal Herria there is a chameleonic, cynical and ruthless agent, that agent is the PSOE. What we enter into NATO, what accepts the violence of the state, what defends the monarchy, what faithfully complies with the orders of transnational capitalism, what represents social justice with a plunge of subsidies, what has normalized the company, what has taken the most violent position of Borrell's mouth in the war in Ukraine ... The PSOE cannot be a travel partner.

On the other hand, the party that is the strategic ally of the PSOE, the PNV, behaved similarly in recent years. The only owners of the current Sabin Etxea are those who frustrated the path proposed by Ibarretxe. The PNV cannot be a travel partner.

What these two actors can propose is a systemic pact, because the action of these two actors is focused on calming in the stable all the transformations that nationalism or the left can produce, becoming a striped symphony.

Dictionaries, formulas and sheet music of the 20th century are not valid. To put it mildly, you need a “quantum” militancy that, at the same time, has the ability to structure possible futures and turn them into the present.

The Basque population must be completed, the Basque ethosa must be redefined. The ethical practice of this Basque demos (based on social, cultural, economic, linguistic and ecological justice) provides us with tools to approach the construction on the site of the Basque Republic, because it can unite future and present.

Patxi Azparren

Bachelor of Social and Cultural Anthropology