I want to say that EA is also a suspect for Spanish nationalism. New trends in politics are appearing and old ones are being extinguished, and the reorganization of Spanish nationalism is evident in the politics of the South Basque Country – and it has been a few years! This would inevitably lead to the reflection phase of Basque nationalism. And in fact, this reflection is taking place, among other reasons, because there are some social and political indicators that indicate the limits or obstacles of the nationalist forces. The explanation of these data, however, is less clear, which distorts the debate.

One of the keys to this explanation is, in my opinion, the upward trend of Spanish nationalism. After a few years of semi-deactivation, it appears strong again, leading to frentism and the forced simplification of political positions. A recent movement has reflected all of this in an unequivocal way. In fact, since the summer, the EA party has opened a more complete discourse on the national issue, with a clearer message of independence, and totally demarcated from the PNV, accusing it of not doing enough to achieve this goal of independence, and also of being an obstacle.

Some have discussed the credibility of the speech, but I found it striking because the response of Spanish nationalism has been spontaneous and violent. The PP wanted to include EA directly in the ETA ensemble and announced measures that have been highly ventilated. But what is the basis of Spanish nationalism to launch this attack on EA? In general, the proclamation of independence in a “louder and more transparent” way, distanced from that of the PNV that they consider symbolic and rhetorical.

Since the ideological attack that Spanish nationalism has been carrying out in recent years, the message that some patriotic forces have wanted to receive is that it must strike against violence and that it is acting against the patriotic left. “I’m going to get rid of that,” the other nationalist forces seem to think, and that’s why every now and then they complain that in addition to the aggression against the nationalist left, which is supposed to be legitimate, they also attack others: “Because we proclaim independence you can’t confuse us with ETA in the same sack,” they say, without knowing that for Spanish nationalism the sack is the same, that of the rival independence or the project of Basque nationalism.