La historia y el nacionalismo. La visión del pasado en el Partido Nacionalista Vasco, 1976-2005

Abstract

From the analysis of the documentation produced by the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), where mentions to the past are abundant, this article analyzes the vision of history that the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) spread during the past thirty years, and the its role in the Party's political-ideological framework. It constitutes an interpretation derived from the Party's ideological guide and it plays a central role in legitimating and constructing mentalities as well as nationalistic political proposals. This study also deals with the intellectual origins of such historical version. The referred version's central element is the approach that the so-called traditional provincial law, locally known as "fuerismo", made in the xviiith century. This action line was interpreted according to nationalistic coordinates and was undressed from its mythical aspects. This vision is completed with new notions with a slight millennialism look and scientific pretension, as well as the nationalism's conception of xixth and xxth centuries. The argumentations of the two perspectives are framed by the referred traditional provincial law, which basically provides the substantial addition to the thematic and interpretative baggage of Basque history, as it is conceived by the nationalism.