The Basque Country Under Franco’s Regime: Resistance and Repression
Post-Civil War Repression in the Basque Country
The Spanish Civil War concluded in the Basque Country in 1937, two years prior to the rest of the Republican-held territories. During these two years, the Francoist regime implemented a strategy of state terror against Basque society.
An estimated 25,000 Basques perished during the war, and individuals suspected of harboring republican sympathies faced summary executions. To further exacerbate the sense of defeat and loss, the Francoist state officially labeled Biscay and Gipuzcoa as “traitorous” provinces, thereby legitimizing the state-sanctioned terror inflicted upon their inhabitants solely for their Basque identity.
From the mid-1950s onward, the Spanish government enforced a policy of total suppression of the Basque language. Teaching Basque was prohibited in all schools, and its use was banned in public spaces, including casual conversations. Basque cultural societies and their publications were outlawed.
In response to this repression, the family became a vital space for political education. While the Spanish Church hierarchy had aligned with Franco during the war, many Basque priests had defended the Basque nationalist cause. These priests, deemed traitors, faced persecution.
The Spanish authorities imprisoned over four hundred Basque priests, with sixteen executed for treason. Those who remained in Euskal Herria often became the sole source, outside the family, for transmitting the Basque language to younger generations.
Eusko Jaurlaritza in Exile
Following the war, the leadership of the Basque nationalist movement went into exile, resulting in a period of limited nationalist activity between 1939 and 1945. Their strategy involved an early commitment to the Allied cause during World War II. In 1941, after negotiations with General Charles de Gaulle‘s “Free French” organization in London, a Basque military unit was established. However, Winston Churchill forced its disbandment the following year.
Crucially, a spy network was established in Euskal Herria during 1942 to monitor movements between Francoist Spain and German-occupied France. Basque wartime activities primarily involved transporting refugees into Spain and fighting against the Nazi occupation.
In 1944, the Gernika Battalion, composed of Basque nationalist refugees, was created and integrated into the French Foreign Legion.
In 1945, the exiled Basque government convened for the first time since the Civil War. A subsequent agreement between exiled Spanish political groups reaffirmed the legitimacy of the Second Republic and the Basque Statute of Autonomy. The president of the exiled government, Jose Antonio Agirre, settled in Washington in 1945 and began lobbying the United States for support against Franco. After 1945, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) also initiated organized resistance against the dictatorship.
Early Resistance Against the Dictatorship
Between 1945 and 1947, a series of symbolic acts challenged the Francoist authorities. The Ikurriña (Basque flag) was displayed in prominent locations, nationalist slogans and the banned word “Euzkadi” were painted on walls, and a statue of General Emilio Mola was blown up in Bilbao in 1946.
The Spanish State responded with arrests, imprisonments, and executions between 1946 and 1947.
The initial phase of resistance culminated in May 1947 with a widespread general strike in the Basque Country protesting the harsh conditions imposed by the dictatorship. This was followed by a wave of industrial protests, culminating in another general strike in 1951, which escalated into violent clashes between police and workers. However, as in 1947, the rest of Spain did not support the Basque actions, allowing Franco to concentrate his forces in the Basque Country.
On the international stage, Agirre met with American State Department officials in 1950 to discuss US policy toward Spain and advocate for Franco’s removal. However, American policy was shifting towards easing relations with Franco, culminating in an agreement.
The industrialization that commenced in the mid-1950s spurred waves of immigration to Basque towns and cities. By 1960, the population had reached “flood proportions“.
The Emergence of ETA and Basque Nationalism
Despite the successful mobilization of Basque workers between 1947 and 1951, many activists were arrested and imprisoned.
Simultaneously, the clandestine network of PNV was significantly weakened, leading young activists to organize independently.
In 1951, a group of young people, primarily students, some of whom had been active in EIA (Society of Basque Students), began meeting informally in Bilbao for secret discussions in Basque about common interests and Basque culture. The outcomes of these meetings were published in an internal newsletter called “Ekin”.
Between 1951 and 1953, the group, now also named Ekin, focused on the intellectual investigation and publication of Basque historical and cultural information.
By 1953, Ekin had two cells, representing Biscay and Gipuzcoa. Their purpose was twofold: first, to function as an educational organization dedicated to promoting the Basque language, history, and culture; and second, learning from EIA’s mistakes, they aimed to create a truly clandestine Basque Nationalist political organization. From 1953 onward, the group attracted the attention of PNV, leading to a dialogue between the two. In Gipuzcoa, this resulted in a close relationship between Ekin and Eusko Gaztedi, the youth wing of PNV, which came to be known as EGI.