:56:01
but is a pluri-national state,
:56:04
and that a pact between nations
can form a certain kind of state,
:56:09
then we can talk,
:56:11
because a uni-national Spain
is an extended Castile.
:56:14
The PP has not understood
the Constitution,
:56:17
or the philosophy
that lies behind it.
:56:20
At the time, he voted against
the Constitution,
:56:24
Article 8, because he didn't
understand the autonomies.
:56:26
A party leader who wrote,
in 1979,
:56:30
a vitriolic article
against Article 8
:56:33
in the "Diario de la Rioja",
:56:34
when he worked there
as a Treasury inspector.
:56:37
I've had several long conversations
with Aznar.
:56:39
Look, Jose María,
I think there have been
:56:41
a lot of clichés
and simplistic statements.
:56:45
If you look back at history,
:56:47
the Basques have
always been present
:56:50
in the construction
of the history of Spain,
:56:54
even before the notion
and concept of Spain existed.
:56:59
There were Basques with Colombus
on board his ships,
:57:03
as crew members
and on the bridge.
:57:07
The Basques feel comfortable
:57:10
as long as the government of Spain
:57:12
respects their customs,
their rights,
:57:15
their general assemblies,
:57:17
their autonomous institutions.
:57:19
There is a close relationship
between Carlism,
:57:22
which represents religious
and political traditionalism,
:57:26
and the world of the Basque
peasants and clergy.
:57:30
At times there was even
a kind of "Basque Arcadia",
:57:34
a series of beliefs
:57:36
with which they defended themselves
against control by Madrid.
:57:41
Spain is attempting
:57:42
to impose certain institutions,
certain laws here
:57:46
in the interests of that unity.
:57:49
After the II Carlist War (1876)
:57:53
Vizcaya, Guipuzcoa,
Alava and Navarre
:57:57
lost their "fueros"
(ancient laws)