José Antonio Ardanza professed a reverential respect for the figure of the Lehendakari and probably would never have dreamed of ending up taking the oath of office before the Gernika tree. “In my house it was God first and then the Lehendakari,” he pointed out. In the midst of the PNV’s greatest internal crisis, however, the party thought of him to replace Carlos Garaikoetxea, who was in conflict with the leadership, and Ardanza ended up leading Euskadi during one of the most critical periods in its recent history. He became the lehendakari who has held office for the longest time – 14 years, between 1985 and 1999 – and left a legacy that is today recognized across the board.
Lehendakari Ardanza died yesterday at his home in Kanala (Bizkaia), at the age of 82, after a long illness. The news disrupted the fourth day of the electoral campaign in Euskadi and forced the parties to carry out a retrospective exercise that became, at the same time, an exercise of justice towards a lehendakari who managed a particularly turbulent period, a time in which Many of the foundations for the present well-being of Basque society were laid.
Affiliated with the PNV since his youth and active underground, Ardanza was elected mayor of Mondragón in 1979 and deputy general of Gipuzkoa in 1983. A year and a half later, however, the clashes between Carlos Garaikoetxea, lehendakari, and Xabier Arzalluz, president of the party, led to a tremendous crisis that would end with the first one out of the executive. And that is when the PNV thought of Ardanza.
At a critical moment for his party and with a Basque Country devastated by the industrial crisis and the terrorist scourge, José Antonio Ardanza opted for transversal pacts, seamless union against violence and rigorous management, but with a bold point. And time ended up proving him right.
At a time that invited discouragement and dejection, the governments chaired by Ardanza decided that Euskadi could not stop. Everything had to be done and, in addition, it was necessary to govern with bright lights. The current Basque Country is largely indebted to the decisions that were made in those years.
Firstly, because the Ajuria Enea pact was key to delegitimizing violence and advancing the unity of political forces against ETA, something that would end up bearing fruit. Secondly, because in those years the second great push for Basque self-government was consummated, giving continuity to the path undertaken by the executives of Garaikoetxea. And it was also done in a transversal way, incorporating Basque socialism into the social construction of Euskadi from the first institutional line.
The Ardanza governments, finally, had to face the complicated mission of economically relaunching a sunken Basque Country. The industrial reconversion and diversification of the Basque economy were forged in those years of extraordinary harshness in the streets.
“A country that manipulated iron ended up making airplanes,” Ramón Jáuregui, a historian of Basque socialism and vice-lehendakari with Ardanza, recalls for La Vanguardia.
Basque nationalism yesterday was full of praise for the Lehendakari who promoted the great change in Euskadi. “He was a person with solid humanist and democratic values. He defended his ideology always based on respect for human rights, plurality and democratic coexistence,” said the current Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu. Although perhaps even more valuable, due to the ideological distance, is the reading that Jáuregui himself makes: “he responded to Euskadi that he governed by doing what Euskadi needed. He was a man that the PNV turned to in its most critical moment and he became the solution. He was a leader despite himself. On a personal level, he was a good person. “A man of polite ways and fraternal feelings.”
