«Spain, the only important thing»: the national center and right parties in the Basque Country during the Transition, 1975-1980

Abstract

This article aims at a dual objective. On the one hand to emphasize the most important distinguishing characteristics of the parties associated to the Spanish Centre Parties and Right-wing Parties during the transition to democracy in the Basque Country. On the other hand, to analyze the ideas of the two political groups with parliamentary representation in that territory (i.e. UCD and AP) had about Spain. The territorial organization of the new democratic State as well as the underlying idea of Spain was one of the basic discussions of the constituent period. For UCD and AP the own laws of the considered territories, known as fueros and interpreted as the great contribution of the Basques and Navarres to the «national history» and the particular way of being «Spanish», was an important component in the definition of their ideas of Spain.