Dies the first Basque president of democracy, Carlos Garaikoetxea

BarcelonaThe first lehendakari of democracy died this Monday from a heart attack. The nationalist Carlos Garaikoetxea passed away this afternoon in Pamplona at the age of 87, after a long political career. He is remembered for having presided over the Basque Country between 1980 and 1985, inaugurating the self-government re-established with the Spanish Transition, before being replaced by José Antonio Ardanza. He who first became linked to the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), by which he was also a deputy, from 1986 onwards split with the nationalist and progressive party Eusko Alkartasuna, which would eventually evolve into Bildu in 2011. He was a Basque deputy between 1980 and 2001, although he also held a seat as a Member of the European Parliament from 1987 to 1991. In 1979 he was also a Navarrese deputy, a position he let go of the same year to focus on the Basque Country.

Garaikoetxea was born on June 9, 1938, in Pamplona, from where he hailed, and he graduated in law and economics, which allowed him to develop his activity in his law firm and in company management. Married with three children, he was president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Navarra and combined this activity with his participation in initiatives in defense of the Basque language and in the promotion of ikastoles –schools in the Basque language – during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

He was elected president of the PNV at the end of the dictatorship and in 1980 he left office. Garaikoetxea had already presided over the provisional Basque government between 1979 and 1980. He was president of the European Free Alliance and of Eusko Alkartasuna from its founding congress in 1987 until 1999. Eusko Alkartasuna was a more progressive faction of Basque nationalism, in contrast to the PNV, which was more anchored towards Christian democracy and liberalism.

The Basque government paid tribute to him a year ago, when the current lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, defined him as "the extraordinary architect of Euskadi". "He arrived in a Euskadi in ruins, hit by recession, unemployment, and violence, and he knew how to design the foundations of a better country", Pradales stated a year ago. One of the first groups to react to the loss has been EH Bildu: "Navarro, abertzale and son of Euskal Herria. One of the main actors of our modern institutionalization and an example of commitment on the path of uniting forces for sovereignty", the party emphasized in a statement. Immediately afterwards, the PNV also conveyed its condolences and recalled that he laid "the foundations of self-government and institutions" and that he "worked for the Basque Country at key and very decisive moments". "Goodbye and honors", said, in turn, the Basque PP.