Carlos Garaikoetxea. The last reading I have made was a book written by Elixabete Garmendia under the title of lehendakari Lider bat. Highly recommended. I confess that he touched me and that he touched me. Not only because of the passages in it, but because I realized I knew very few nuances about a very important part of our recent history. And I've had a kind of bitter taste, because even though I've read the book, I still feel like I don't know.
At a time when the proposed reform of the Gernika Statute is at its peak, I believe it is essential that the generations who did not live at that time should be aware of the situation in which the rule of law was drafted. It is noteworthy, for example, that in compulsory regulated education you do not learn the nearby history. Among other things, the Franco regime, the Gernika Statute or the Navarra Amejoramiento Act are not part of the curriculum. Let us not forget the avatars of recent decades. Therefore, those who discontinue their studies will have little reference to understand and interpret the current political situation in the Basque Country.
At a time when the proposed reform of the Gernika Statute is at its peak, I believe it is essential that the generations who did not live at that time should be aware of the situation in which the rule of law was drafted. It is noteworthy, for example, that in compulsory regulated education you do not learn the nearby history. Franco, the Gernika Statute or the Navarre Amejoramiento Act, among others, are not part of the curriculum
If the Education System should encourage citizens to be part of political decisions, it should ensure that students are aware of the facts of recent decades. The Basque Government intended to fill part of this gap through the Herenegun programme, and the controversy that has arisen in this regard makes it clear why we are more comfortable with the Middle Ages or the Times of War than the next passages. It is not a question of giving young people the tools to create their own stories, it is not a question of giving them information about events. It is a matter of imposing a single story, driven by the Spanish Government and, above all, by the media apparatus. They are the ones who have the power and capacity to transmit the stories.
I also have a bitter taste as regards the figure of Garaikoetxea, because it seems to me that there are not enough references to it today. There is at home a passage that our fathers and mothers have told us many times that can serve as a metaphor for their evolution. In the hallway of my grandmother's house and my grandfather's house, there was a pretty big painting that featured prominently in the house. In the framework of this painting, they had the photograph of Garaikoetxea, who, besides being President of the Government, was also the head of the house, thanks to his privileged place, an incarnate god worshiped. I do not have the memory of that image, because I was not yet born, but my parents have told us on more than one occasion how, after the internal crisis of the PNV and the separation of Eusko Alkartasuna, every time we went to visit it, the photo was collapsing until it disappeared. They had never taken him away, but the strength and time of gravity did their job and lost the main place of the house. In a way, they didn't deny it, but it went from devotion and exaltation to not being at all. It has been many years since then, more than thirty, but, after reading his biography, I wonder if it is not a passage that represents his trajectory well.
Historical references are an important means for the construction of national identity, and I believe that Garaikoetxeaâs figure and biography can give him much juice on the current political scene. In short and without going into any detail, I will launch two issues that are clearly mentioned in the book: 1) The Statute was an interim solution for the PNV, under no circumstances an objective; and 2) The corruption institutionalized within the PNV is described very clearly in an interview with an Iberduero leader on the Lemoiz Nuclear Power Plant.