First, I would ask: “Who is @aranagoiri?” But the purpose of this interview is not to remove the mask from anyone, so we will start with the second question: How does the idea of making a troll with Sabin Arana come about?

Before founding @aranagoiri, in the summer of 2011, he began to take the form of a Basque txiosphere, but he lacked some elements already developed by the erdal communities, among which were parodic issues. Jon Mirande's first Basque faqué experiment was carried out, and a good reception indicated that there was a way to go around this concept. There is not much to say about the choice of character: D. Arana is well-known, referential and, above all, timeless, gave us more freedom than current characters. If we had not done so, another would have done so.

We are talking about the political trolls, that is, the regular trolls of the network that have no other purpose than to exploit the debates, as they have a clearer political objective. Would you be within that definition? What is the purpose of an account like @aranagoiri?

At first it was completely experimental and playful, just wanting to incorporate Basque references to Twitter. This was done quickly and soon after we tried to better work the figure of Sabin Arana on Twitter, as an updated historical representation of the character. But making jokes about models has a limited path, and we have long deviated, it is no longer Arana and Goiri’tar Sabin, but @aranagoiri, keeping the costume with self-evident speeches and coordinates. The objective, today, is still eminently playful, we do it because we have a good time saying nonsense, but it is clear that it has many edges: provoking, informing, generating debate, a quite clear political discourse – for those who can read between lines – ...

Mr Arana, it sometimes seems that you do not agree very much with the current political line of the PNV. If I could lead the party again, what action would it take? Or what else would Sabin Arana look like today?

Going into political fiction would be insignificant, and we do enough of the fake political scientist and the fake historian on the net. Mr Rogalla's short career Arana intermingled the famous “two faces” of the PNV, and who knows. Our @aranagoiri is a radical independentist, so he has some problems with the current leadership of Sabin Etxea. It's hard to ask for patience from someone who's waited 120 years. He wants less communion and more homeland.

The collective memory bears a serious and somewhat solemn image of the founder of the PNV. Moreover, some political sectors have demonised their image. What part of real Sabin have you kept and what have you added on your part?

We've taken advantage of Uncle Sabin's costume to create our own character, but we've kept our intention to defend the historical figure or at least evaluate it in the right context. It is not acceptable for Arana to be called racist by a gangster who bleaches to the slave Cánovas del Castillo, or for Spanish nationalist views to use it as insult “aranists”. History and newspaper archives help us a lot in these cases, normally it is not necessary to make a great effort to show this type of hypocritical discourse. On the other hand, it is clear that there are aspects of the real Sabin that we do not take proper care of them, our uncle Sabin is nothing more than a nominal Christian, and has a very up-to-date, savage and pagan vocabulary.

What are the advantages of acting as Sabin Arana against the real people who manage the account for political criticism? What is good and against whom you tweet without giving the real name and surname?

The clearest advantage is provided by the name itself, the brand. Our content may be better or worse – we are generally happy with the product – but if we sign the same joke with our names and surnames – when we do – we would not get that answer. Our number of followers is not only the result of a possible adequate modus operandi, but is largely given by a recycled name, if you will, stolen from a corpse. Somehow we have kidnapped the Sabin Arana brand for the benefit of our message and that gives us little concern about the character’s original character.

Is anonymity an advantage?

Some say that anonymity brings impunity and they will be right, but it also means freedom of criticism, and it is to be welcomed in these convulsive times of Operation Spider. It seems like a calmer path of insults, and today there are many public people who deserve to be insulted. It is clear that we do not believe too much in political righteousness, in “formal respect”. However, we always try to associate insult with argument. Surely we have ever abused anonymity, it's easy to fail when you're dancing on the boundary between excitement and insult, but it's worth it to us. Someone might say we're cowards for being behind a nickname, but we don't care. A Navarro sang “Pintadas says what the papers are silent” and we add “what the signatures say what the anonymous say”.

He also launched the blog ZuZeun, which has not been renewed since 2012. Does someone like @aranagoiri feel more uncomfortable in formats with fewer interactions than on Twitter? Or does it take time to write for the blog (or laziness)?

It is the format proposed by ZuZeu's friends, or was it?, and unfortunately we have never taken the measure. In the last two years we have been a couple of times about to recover the blog and nothing has happened. It was created for Txiokiñe and Txiokiñera @aranagoiri, and there it is more comfortable. The lack of time can be used as an excuse, and if we ever talk in person with Hasier Etxeberria we will, but for the moment we can safely accept that it is nothing more than our fault.

You use humor, irony and sarcasm for political comment. In that sense, do you think that social networks have opened up a new space that didn't exist before? I mean, before you ran a Twitter account, did you talk about politics in those terms, or is the medium the one that helps these kinds of messages?

Before Twitter, we already talked about politics on the Internet, in forums, etc. There are important politicians or public figures who personally manage their account. They're naked, waiting for him to shoot. The public discourse has been a little “democratized”, we would not like to be too innocent, but in this respect the world of politics has lost at least a small layer of support. They're going to adapt because the environment is still in some new way and they're going to invent some way to reduce potential harm -- and yet, obviously, Twitter is not a suitable space to develop deep debates -- but meanwhile, citizenship has a small, chaotic field of opinion and relationship, and it's not a little bit.

The mechanism for arresting traditional trolles has long been invented: “don’t feed the troll”, that is, ignore what @aranagoiri says. But it seems that it doesn't work with you: you keep getting angry at people. Do you use any special mechanism for provocation?

Provocation is insignificant in itself, when it comes only to insulting or enraging behind it. Provocation works inexorably when the message and intention go behind and we strive for it. A great audience on Twitter values it. A large number of followers also help, it is difficult not to respond to a blow that comes to you with a clear intention, if dozens of people laugh at you publicly.

What if those who are now on fire adopted a more calm attitude? What will happen to Sabin Arana on Twitter when the ultra-Spaniards internalize concepts such as national plurality? In that case would @aranagoiri have a political space on the net?

Yes, because @aranagoiri is not just looking outside. We try to separate the blows to right and sinister, both at home and outside, although then the hand leans towards what is intuitively more comfortable. But there is a lot of Euzkadi to overflow, and although all Spaniards would sign up tomorrow for a hypothetical Coordinator of Democratic Literacy, we would have space and discourse. Trainspotting Irvine Welsh explains very well: “They’re just wankers, we are colonised by wankers” (“Son tontozilas, we are colonized by tontozilas”). If they're wrong, it's a sign that we're even worse. You also have to bite into that wound.

There are Twitter accounts that have a similar activity based on historical characters. Do you like it especially?

We have a doubt that you can consider yourself a historical character, but we are fans of @TheTweetOfGod. In Euskera, we would mention Xalbador (@xalbadorrenea), although more than a parody is a tribute #OngiEgin. A small wave of paradoxical, historical and contemporary stories has lost strength in the Basque Country, as it is difficult to maintain such a profile without getting bored. We would like to see Telesforo Monzón competing with Uncle Sabino. In Spanish there are parodious issues of great level and success. For example, we would highlight @North Korean and @sergiosayas.

Uncle Sabin usually writes the Tweets in Basque and Spanish, but predominates in Spanish: in the language of the maqueted parts of the homeland? Or to have a tuitstar, do you have to resort to the main languages?

When creating the account we were clear that it had to be in Basque, but we started without training, in a hurry, and we had Sabin Arana (!) I was speaking in Basque Country batua. But one of those who supposedly loved the concept was the immediate creator of @Luis Arana Goiri, and embedded in a rare role-playing game, the brother implicitly helped us set criteria. Little by little @aranagoiri has fled from Euskera to Castilian, and we live in that contradiction. When we are reproached, we put as an excuse the limits of our Bastard Martian who we have called sabinera, or else, with the Gara newspaper we joke about what we give to the process of normalisation of Spanish and move forward. It is true that an essential part of our character is the interaction with the Castilian speaking elements, what we call “external pedagogy”. But it's not an excuse. There have been those who have worked humor successfully and only in Euskera on Twitter, as is the case of @Euskaltroll, who seems to be retired. If we use the Tuitstar word quantitatively, I don't know if we have the Basque word, because we are a small community. But in Basque there is a very high quality of humor and tuitry, of that we have no doubt.

The movie that tells the life of Sabin Arana, the Loreak Mendian t-shirt with the face of Sabin… Are we living a revival of Arana? How did you influence it?

If we unintentionally set in motion a fictional hypstization process of Sabin Arana, we go to the Sukarrieta cemetery to apologize. Loreak Mendiane should be asked if he had to see @aranagoiri in that design. The answer arouses great curiosity, especially when it comes to asking for royalties.

In the recording of the newly released Sabin telefilme we have no merit, because it was supposed to rotate in 2011. However, it is noteworthy that ETB produces this type of #drogagogorra. There is no tweet that can illustrate that scratch between Sabin and Nikole. Asier Hormaza deserves an Academy Oscar. Or two.

More information:

Report on the political troll: The anonymous stars of public opinion.

Interview with the members of Diario Faco: "People stop reading the Diario Vasco and follow us"