The professor of Theology, Sociology and former Basque Culture Councilor
Joseba Arregi Aranburu
died today in Bilbao at the age of 75. Arregi, a member of a Gipuzkoan nationalist family, was an
organic position of the PNV
and a member of the party founded by Sabino Arana
until 2004
. His gradual departure from the PNV came about by consolidating his commitment to the concept of citizenship, his rigorous analysis of the political and social history of the Basque Country and, especially, with the political role of the victims of ETA terrorism.
Arregi was born in
Andoain in 1946
into a
Basque and nationalist
family
. After training at the seminary, he completed his studies at the German University of Münster where he received a doctorate in theology. Back in the Basque Country, he was also a doctor of Sociology from
the University of Deusto
. As a member of an illegal party, he participated in the
opposition to the Franco dictatorship
and was president of the PNV in Gipuzkoa when in 1986 Carlos Garaikoetxea caused the split by creating Eusko Alkartasuna.
Arregi, a renowned intellectual in the 1980s, was part of the Basque Government for a decade and as
Minister of Culture he
participated directly in the negotiations with the
Guggenheim Foundation
for Bilbao to become one of the international headquarters, within a process of international expansion with which Thomas Krens expanded the economic capacity of this project. The Basque institutions pledged to contribute the 2,000 million pesetas of the time to facilitate a museum of contemporary art that, in addition, promoted the urban development of a new Bilbao.
"There is life outside the parties,"
Arregi defended after abandoning his political stage and returning to teaching and political reflection. The Basque intellectual reflected in an abundant bibliography his analysis of the recent history of the Basque Country with titles such as 'The Possible Basque Nation', 'Being a nationalist' or 'Euskadi as a passion'. Critical of nationalism, he promoted a citizen forum called
'Aldaketa'
(Change in Basque) and multiplied his collaborations in the media with an approach of frontal opposition to ETA terrorism and also critical of the role played by most of Basque society.
"Basque society has not defeated ETA, but rather the powers of the State. It would do well to look in the mirror and wonder where I have been," Arregi defended in one of his last interviews with the El Mundo journalist Leyre Iglesias after receive the award from the
Covite Foundation
.
Arregi has died after several months sick as a result of an illness that was spoiling his mobility but not his ability to analyze.
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