In recent months, there have been many Basque politicians I have known for a long time. All of a sudden, it seems that all the politicians in Hego Euskal Herria have looked at Madrid, as if what happens there is our main concern.

The two main political groups in the South are competing in the same field for the prize for what could be obtained from a hypothetical collaboration with the Spanish Government. Both have entered the media game, driving telematic hyperleadership; unemployed, dispersed, bored, desperate, away from a sociological base astonished, precisely in these times when our people are changing in their roots. In this socio-cultural, demographic, sanitary, political, economic tie, the Basque politicians of Hegoalde have acknowledged the situation of dependency.

If we lose the passion to transform reality, even if it is essential to objectively analyze reality in order to change a situation we do not love, we cannot do so. The key phrase is “to accept reality”. From the moment the ditxósica phrase is pronounced, a line is traversed, a milestone that has no turn back. Because it embodies a huge change of spirit, the change of goal, the change of paradigm.

Paradigms are not doctrines, but tools. A method that provides us with tools to better understand complex facts and a map that can give us a consistent pattern to achieve our goals. In the difficult situation we are experiencing, the sovereign and independence paradigm has been discarded, which may be an obstacle to meeting certain needs. I, on the other hand, take the opposite view, because I believe that if we had maintained the sovereign and independentist paradigm, we would be able to articulate more effective responses.

We have renounced our legal and cultural tradition. A tradition that says that we are born so that free men can live in a free people. Instead of tackling it, before the health crisis, and much more so in this crisis, our politicians have internalized some post-democratic policy practices.

Political groups no longer need an active basis, telematic congresses, virtual meetings, virtual militancy can be held. The information chaparron, the overinformation, hides the essential information. I would say more, they think that professional politicians can hide fundamental information, professional politicians are convinced that they know everything, professional politicians have decided that they can decide everything on our behalf. Basque politicians have also moved away from the people.

As I have already said, the trend that has prevailed at present was already coming. Following the 2008 crisis, the Spanish State was in a critical situation. In addition to the crisis generated by the neoliberal utopia, there are other crises. The 78 regime was in trouble. The Spanish groups that were set up to modify this regime immediately became masons of the regime. Only in Catalonia, where the most massive civil disobedience action has been carried out in Europe.

That day, precisely, the new attitude of the Basque political groups in Hego Euskal Herria was reflected. The PNV supporting unionism; EH Bildu taking a step back. Although we honestly did many campaigns, initiatives and actions of solidarity, the truth is that we left Catalonia only when we needed the most. When the Spanish State was in a serious crisis, we refused unilateralism.

We must maintain the independence paradigm. At a time when unilaterality and bilaterality are impossible, only the sovereign paradigm can pull us out of the suffocating inconsistency. If we do not want to work as a bricklayer of the 78 regime, we must at all times deny the legitimacy of the French and Spanish states. This denial does not mean that we renounce solidarity, but that we want to have the capacity and the readiness to help the people and peoples who need help from sovereignty. Denial makes us free, free, to start creating another model, to avoid unsustainable “scalinism” and crusher.

The Basque democracy must be built by the free citizens, the Basque Republic must be built by the citizens who make up the present Basque Country; we can build it, because it is a feasible, feasible and attractive alternative. It will be an original journey, because the situation is as new as ours.