French and Spanish leftist parties and movements have a different relationship with the concept of nation and with nationalism. This completely conditions the relationship with the Basque nationalists. But why? The key to the theme lies in the different processes of creation of the nation-state and its identities, revolutionary to the north of Aturri and oligarchic to the south of the Ebro.

During the French Revolution (1789-1799) two aspects were highlighted: the Gironins and the Jacobins. The Gironins, or garlands, were supporters of a moderate liberal revolution. This group defended the interests of the commercial bourgeoisie of the coast, especially the merchants of the Gironde region, and therefore advocated a federal state model. The Jacobins, on the other hand, were representatives of the Vulgo, the proletarians of Paris. They were therefore in favour of making political and social changes deeper than the previous ones. They also advocated a centralist State model that equated social equality among citizens with territorial equality. Moreover, they believed that the federalist demands of the peripheries were contrary to the interests of the nation, similar to the feudal privileges of the Old Regime. Consequently, except for exceptions, the French Left has been in favour of centralism, and that is why it is more common for nationalists in the Basque Country to establish alliances with a centrist such as Jean Rene Etxegarai than the Jacobins of PS or PCF.

On the left of Spain, however, the federalist tradition is much more entrenched. At least this idea I. It comes from the conflictive era of the Republic (1873-1874). As can be seen in the upper caricature, the finer population and the more progressive sectors (I. The international and anarchism favored the federal republic and the bourgeoisie the unitary. Over the years, centrifugal and left-wing demands have been intertwined: from cantonalism to II. Until the autonomous process of the Republic (1931-1936). In Franco's case, the alliance between the left and peripheral nationalisms was consolidated as a reaction against the centralism imposed by the dictatorship. But there are exceptions, like Lineuxism, which accused the peripheral nationalisms of being bourgeois the left republican current. It is based on the thought of Alejandro Lineux (1864-1949) of the early twentieth century, contrary to the Catalan bourgeoisie.

For all these reasons, the French left is generally centralist and jacobin. In Spain, on the contrary, centralism is often identified with the right and the left has more interiorized the demands for decentralization, be it autonomists, federalists or self-determinists. In general, centralist and jacobin currents have been less frequent in the Spanish left, at least so far.