Constructive protest? Civil society mobilizations and transformations of left-wing nationalism in the French Basque country

Although far less known than its Spanish Basque counterpart, Basque nationalism is also deeply rooted in the Basque-speaking part of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques French département. The abertzale (Basque movement) has experienced a long historical and ideological trajectory, from Catholic and Christian-democratic roots to a more leftist, even marxist and anti-colonial orientation since the 1970s. Unlike the Spanish Basque Country, the abertzale political spectrum in the French Basque Country is now dominated by its leftist component (Abertzaleen batasuna and Batasuna parties), while the centre-right Basque Nationalist Party (PNB) remains in a minority position. Left-wing abertzalism has gained significant electoral support over the last 20 years, specially at the municipal scale, thus turning the abertzale formations into pivotal forces in local elections. However and despite this increase, the electoral impact of Basque left nationalism remains relatively limited and contained. Our claim in this paper is that the impact of abertzale politics goes far beyond the sole institutional arena, and that their ideas have been widespread through a series of socio-economic and citizen initiatives undertaken by civil society actors. These initiatives are to be found in various sectors and are often related to the so-called social and solidarity economy: alternative Chamber of agriculture, short food circuits, associative Basque teaching schools, workers’ and general interest cooperatives, alternative energy suppliers, local media broadcast, local currency, etc. This refocusing on socio-economic and citizens mobilizations provides an opportunity for the abertzale movement to open the political spectrum to other spheres of activism: ecology, small farmers movement, social and solidarity economy, women movement, etc. The paper will concentrate of the analysis of the political dimension of these mobilisations, by analyzing the way the local “culture of civic opposition” has historically evolved from the classical political arena towards the space of the socio-economic alternatives. The paper will propose a problematized review of the results of recent research (including that of one of us) on Basque politicizations and their contemporary evolution. Indeed, we will place these results within an extended and sociological approach of politicization by looking at the processes through which the different social and civic uses of Basque identity and Basque nationalist claims have, from the 1970s to the present, been vectors for the crystallization of left-wing political horizons, such horizons having varied according to the contexts and actors involved. The paper will be divided into four historical processes that partly overlap: 1) social Catholicism and Christian Democrat nationalism; 2) anti-colonialist turn; 3) connection with anti-globalization and ecological movements; 4) involvement of the institutional spaces of the new territorial governance.