The last Lehendakari : assimulation of the Basque

Yesterday the unionist parties of the Spanish state of both ruling leftwing PSOE and rightwing opposition PP, who have never agreed on anything other than pay-rises, united to elect the leader of the Basque branch of the PSOE as first minister of the Euskadi region for their loyalist commitment to the project the PP saw a young up and coming member (before only noteworthy for her thoughts on condoms [she'd never use one]) appointed speaker of the Basque parliamentary house. The Lehendakari (taoiseach) of the last ten years of the PNV majority centre right nationalist party who have always held the post thus passes into history.

The pact between the PSOE and PP was presented by them as one which will bring "change" to the region. Amongst the changes they chose to include in the formally published lists of agreements was : the planned undermining of the EITB, Basque national tv and news network, the policy of promoting the Basque or Euskera language in education, health and other civil services and of course "security".

The Lehendakari was notable in that he so long championed in his own centre right way the Basque "right to decide" and as such formulated on two ocassions the requisite mechanisms for the Basque people to vote in referenda on their self-determination, which for his majority party would always fall short of outright independence in favour of a fudge of "external association" perhaps familiar to those who studied the route from Griffith to De Valera without dwelling un-neccesarily on greater Hungarian territorial aspirations.

As such the lehendakari wasn't too popular with the left wing parties of Basque seperatism but as long as he as sidelined, and all his proposals were ruled unconstitutional by Madrid, he never really got his chance to bring the place and its people to a stepping stone. But even though his party and the tripartite coalition with which he had entered the last regional elections won the most votes, the hitherto unthinkable mathematics of a "grand coalition" which suited Madrid of left or right - have won what can only really be called the first ministership of the basque region Though it can not be denied that such a result was only possible by through the proscription of the leftwing nationalist and seperatist vote and their voters.

the last lehendakari has announced he will now leave the political life .
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links in Basque, Spanish & English
http://www.gara.net/paperezkoa/20090506/135774/es/Patxi...retxe
http://www.berria.info/paperekoa/harian/2009-05-06/002/...i.htm
http://www.diariovasco.com/20090506/politica/lopez-lehe....html
http://www.deia.com/es/impresa/2009/05/06/bizkaia/polit...8.php
http://www.eitb.com/albisteak/politika/osoa/141873/aro-...atuta
http://www.eitb.com/albisteak/politika/osoa/141812/poli...etxek