A decade ago, in one of the first visits I made to Euskal Herria, I experienced an unusual situation or anecdote that I still remember with humor. It happened in a village in Gipuzkoa, where most of the population is Abertzale, I'm not going to give details about its name, I don't want to create unnecessary stigmas.

We entered a group of Catalans in one of the taverns of the town. Those present warned of our origin and the servant immediately asked us: “Well, are you coming to look for the stickers?” Laughter broke out. We laughed. We keep talking until late in the night.

It was another time then. The repression of the state was fierce, weapons and bombs were heard every day. On the other hand, in this corner of the northern Mediterranean, sovereignty did not manage to break the glass ceiling of the autonomism, the autonomism agreed for more than two decades with the regime of 1978.

We all know the admiration of some sectors of Catalan society for the courage and strength of the movement in the Basque Country. It has had to suffer the tragic consequences of the political conflict, it still has an outstanding conflict. At that time, it was often said that “the Catalan independentists tried to use various structures, methods and aesthetics practiced on the shores of the Gulf of Bizkaia”. In other words, the use of the concept of the “Basque mirror” was widespread.

As those young people who were around the bar told us, sometimes they were filled with people asking uncomfortable questions, like us, their people, curious about what was going on there, to gather and put into practice the lessons that could be useful around them. However, our self-esteem was weak, the checkmate we wanted to cast the king in some way was because of the miracle we had made of that community of men, and for various reasons we were delighted at the admiration we felt for those people we have as brothers, but nothing else.

In recent years, as a déjà vu, I've experienced a strange feeling that roles have been changing. The admired have become luxury spectators and the acolytes have refused to look aside to take the reins of our history. Seeing the Basque groups at the visit to get to know our projects has become commonplace, our tabernacles are interrogated with anxiety to know the essence of our strategies. This strange paradox puts us at a possible high level, but without being fully aware of how we have come here.

What do you want me to tell you? I believe there is no reason to believe that the situation has changed altogether. In other words, the power of the Basque People at the time was not inaccessible to us, and now you are not a defeated people, without any capacity to realize your yearning for freedom. Neither of them. Ten years ago we were not people without strong projects, that we were doing revolutionary tourism, that we would never become anyone, that we looked at you with envy, and now we are not some sort of vanguard, that you fight for over 60 years we will achieve it in two days.

Surely, we lack our own affection and affection and, above all, we lack some realism. Let our own bourgeoisies be left with the contests and betrayals that concern them, even on the day that we run our republics, they will deny us the utopia of having achieved that end. Our paths go beyond national liberation, which alone will not bring the social transformation we dream of. We share the road and let each people pull on one side, so the stake will end up falling.