The Minister for Culture of the Basque Government, RAMON LABAIEN, on the beginning of the 1980s: “Everyone knew that in Euskal Herria we didn’t really have Euskera. Not in the streets, not in the public administration, not in the media, not in education. A total vacuum, except the ikastolas that were in the ghetto, still did not appreciate the weight of the generations that were going to be fired” (Basque Culture Yearbook 1996).

How much more can you see today? Of course, much more, but I will not get into those streets. On this occasion, the opinion comes from the corridors of the Basque Government: "For the Basque Country to advance, it is necessary that the Basque Left be in the institutions, also in the Basque Government. The PNV has not had it, has not had it and I do not see from now on the strength necessary to take the final step.”

Eusebio Gorospe, a worker of the Basque Government dedicated to the translation ‘Biturie’, has launched the phrase in the blog Munean. It also makes a ferocious criticism of the VPL of the Basque Government. The importance of content? Because they come from where they come from, they can be more or less important than a senior position. Biturie worked for years on the nationalist blog from Álava and is currently a member of the PNV. He was also active in the blog Tiraka, already missing. In short, Bituri claims the collaboration of the two great cultures and currents of nationalism, as well as many other Basques and Abertzales. At the prestigious public meeting on day 3 between the PNV and the Sortu there was talk of crisis and pacification. Did they also talk about the situation of the Basque country and the Basque culture?

I read the news of the SITUATION OF THE HASTE, the possible catastrophe of the editor of El País, after Bituriena. The fact is that in recent years Hurry has managed to reduce the debt from EUR 5 billion to EUR 3,100, among other things by selling its property to large banks and companies, but that is something else. According to the news, Hurry is hit with liquidity and could announce his defeat at the end of August in the United States. The country would then be in danger of disappearing, but it will not disappear, as a friend says, because that is a State newspaper, and they will not fall. Like Bankia: too much fish and debt to let die. And at the head of the reflection: How many of the Basque media would our politicians and institutions fall? Can the crisis be used to clean up? Or, turning the crisis into an opportunity and gathering synergies, will it be used for a qualitative step?

The reflection leads to the birth of EiTB, and evidently the money of the Basque Government was key to its construction, but the protagonists of that moment, including Labaien and Txillardegi, have pointed out that the collaboration between institutions and social movements had its importance in the creation of EITB in 1982. In a much calmer atmosphere than then, if we could not multiply the collaboration between institutions and social forces in linguistic normalization, a bad sign. Political science has long shown that the most successful developments come from the combination of institutions and social forces, in any field, here and at the Concha.

The Basque media of POPULAR INITIATIVE were negligible in the creation of EITB:Anaitasuna, Argia, Jakin, Herria and some small radios. The objective of the two branches of the media was the same: to work information from a local perspective and to promote linguistic normalisation. The public sector had, of course, a lot of millions of pesetas from the government; those of popular initiative, a few hundred thousand pesetas, at best.

Since then, the two lines have been developed in an impressive way, especially that of popular initiative, and today they work in a similar way in terms of number of employees and/or audience data, always taking into account the Basque data of EITB; or, perhaps, those of popular initiative will go ahead.

However, there is a big difference that benefits nothing to the proposed objectives, as there are two data that provide the size of the problem: The Basque Government dedicated EUR 130 million in 2012 to EiTB, while to the popular initiative EUR 5 million. Many assessments can be made, but it is time to reflect on what has been done in both branches of workers, hearings and other parameters, so that it is also perceived in public investment. Just as El País is important for Spain, the Basque media are also key for the Vasco-speakers and for the Basque Country.