The Basque exodus as a consequence of ideological persecution

Orellana Martínez, José Luis
Macarrón Larumbe, Alejandro
Urquijo, Carlos de

After half a century of democracy in Spain, the Basque provinces have undergone a major social ransformation. The initial plurality demonstrated in the first elections, as befits an advanced, urban and industrial society, was gradually degraded by the emergence of terrorism and the establishment of a nationalist autonomous government which, with no political alternative to replace it, has imposed a way of life that resembles a single-party regime. Today, the terrorism of ETA and its satellite groups have come to an end, leaving in their wake almost a thousand direct murder victims, along with other discriminatory measures that have created a severe social trauma. However, the disappearance of terrorism has not meant the deactivation of its social support, but rather expanded it, and has even increased its prominence due to the interrelation with other political forces that do not pose democratic cordons, and which were used by the nationalists against the representations of democratic parties.