José Antonio Ardanza, leader of the Basque government between 1985 and 1999, distinguished politician and Lehendakari (president) during one of the most violent phases of the terrorist group ETA, has died at the age of 82. While he was president more than 300 murders took place, something that he always recognized as the greatest burden he had had to bear. Moderate, open to dialogue, a builder of bridges to end the Basque conflict, he launched the so-called agreement for the normalization and pacification of Euskadi, colloquially known as the Pact of Ajuria Enea, after the headquarters of the Basque government in Vitoria where, in 1988, it was signed by parties ranging from the three main Spanish groups, right-wing Alianza Popular, centrist CDS and the Socialists of the PSE; and in Euskadi, Ardanza's own Basque Nationalists (PNV) plus Euskadiko Esquerra (EE) and Eusko Alkartasuna ( EA), which represented all the nationalist sensibilities at that time. The aim was to work towards the eradication of ETA terrorism, which would take more than two decades to happen.
Even today, he retains the privilege of being the Lehendakari who served the longest at the head of the Basque government, and despite that, it was not until he had left office and a certain amount of time had passed that his legacy was recognized. In those years, I had the opportunity to talk to him on several occasions in Vitoria and in Barcelona, and despite the fact that he managed to successfully heal the rupture in Basque nationalism cause by the departure of Lehendakari Carlos Garaikoetxea from the PNV and his creation of a new party, Eusko Alkartasuna, there was always a tendency to undervalue his role. Perhaps, because the all-powerful Xabier Arzalluz did not leave room for others to shine as they deserved. Or, perhaps, because Ardanza did not need a spotlight or strident statements to establish positions that quickly became those of the majority.
I remember very well that in that ranking at the time of presidents of Spain's autonomous communities, it was Jordi Pujol who, for better or worse, was the politician. Ardanza, meanwhile, was centred in the world of management, which was often a way of saying without saying, wrongly, that he was a gray politician. In speeches, Pujol was the brilliant one; Ardanza had a tendency to boredom. The former liked the spotlight; the second did not have the same interest. In part, because the PNV has a very good division of the roles between the president of the Euzkadi Buru Batzar - the top leader of the party - and the president of the Basque government, the highest institutional position. A formula that has never existed in Catalonia and which all the parties that have always unified both roles have avoided. The first attempt at this two-headed approach was made by the Catalan Republican Left quite recently, between Junqueras and Aragonès, without enough time to make an in-depth evaluation, but with shortcomings so that they can be compared.
Ardanza did not need a spotlight or strident statements to establish positions that quickly became those of the majority
His book Pasión por Euskadi, presented in 2011, is a compendium of his political career and his understanding of public commitment. It was also a way of making clear a certain deficit that exists in politics regarding putting down one's memoirs in first-person. Ardanza justified doing so by arguing that the Basques had always been very reluctant to write, and that in this way their history had come to be written by others. Especially enlightening is his surprise when it was proposed that he take over from Garaikoetxea, which he recounts like this: "I couldn't believe that I, José Antonio Ardanza, was the person they had fixed on to be Lehendakari. It seemed impossible that they could have let a responsibility like this fall on me. It was the closest thing to a nightmare."
And his experience as architect of the first coalition government between the PNV and the PSE, which over the years has become a classic of Basque politics. "I did not want to be the lehendakari of a coalition with the Socialists: I knew that it would arouse strong criticism in nationalist sectors, even within my own party, and I feared that no one would come out to defend it. That is why I wanted to provoke debate. Xabier Arzalluz, however, vehemently defended that a party should never voluntarily accept the move to the opposition, and called for support for the agreement with the Socialists." And, in the middle of the electoral campaign for the elections of April 21st in the Basque Country, there it is still seen the same way.