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Basque Nationalist Party (Basque Country, Spain)

Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Partido Nacionalista Vasco / EAJ-PNV

"State" flag

image by Santiago Dotor, 24 Oct 2003

Description

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Description

Recently it was possible to see the flag which the PNV party, currently governing the Basque Country region in northern Spain, uses as a totally-unofficial-"official"-flag :-) This is the "ikurriña" bearing the Basque "greater arms" on its centre. This coat-of-arms is also completely unofficial, partly because it displays arms of Basque territories in France (Labourd/Lapurdi and Soule/Zuberoa) and of Navarre, which is a different region of Spain with the same status as the Basque Country and only partly ethnically Basque. Being completely unofficial, each version of the arms is different, not only in style but also in its elements, and this one incorporates supporters --two lions-- and a scroll with motto, which reads "Jaun-Goikua eta Lagi-Zara" i.e. "God and [the] Old Laws," the latter referring to the traditional laws or "fueros" granted to several Basque territories by Castilian, later Spanish, kings.

The motto belongs to the Nationalistic Basque Party, and the shield is used traditionally by this political party (it has more than 100 years). The angel on the shield is Saint Michael of Aralar, Patron Saint of Euskalerria (Basque Country).

Aingeru Astui Zarraga, 24 Oct 2003

These pictures at the PNV website show a poor image of the flag.

This picture of PNV leader Josu Jon Imaz shows only part of the arms, as does its enlarged version (caution, 1,35 Mb).

A photograph which appeared yesterday in "El País" newspaper showed somewhat better the arms.

The arms appears to be the same as one which I downloaded six years ago from the PNV website, I seem to recall they were a proposal for Basque arms within the PNV Youth (Euzko Gaztedi del Interior or EGI) section of the said website, not longer available but backlogged at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

The flag appears to be a single sample, since it appears on the PNV leader's photograph but not on those of the rest of the PNV leadership, those of whom show a flag displaying the plain "ikurriña."

Using that coat-of-arms and the image of the Basque flag at the SEV website, I have prepared the above image of the PNV's "state" flag.

Sources:

PNV website, visited 24/10/2005
"El País" newspaper, 23/10/2005, p. 18

Santiago Dotor, 24 Oct 2003