ABSTRACT
Basque Nationalist Party the oldest political party of the Spanish state became the leading political party in the new-born autonomous community. In the scholarly debate, the remarkable ability of the PNV leaders has been compared with the swing of a pendulum and its permanent oscillation between two opposite extremes: the radical claim for Basque sovereignty and independence on the one hand, and the pragmatic display of a moderate realpolitik that has aimed at achieving higher degrees of regional autonomy as a means of gradual Basque nation building, on the other. The leaders of different Basque nationalist parties and unions, including the PNV the political wing of the terrorist underground group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) - Basque Homeland and Freedom, signed a declaration that defined the main outlines of a Basque peace process and political normalization. This chapter helps to explain why there arose among Basque nationalists a strong feeling that they were the victims of an unfair and insulting aggression.
