José Antonio Ardanza

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In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Ardanza and the second or maternal family name is Garro.

José Antonio Ardanza
José Antonio Ardanza in 2012
Lehendakari of the Basque Country
In office
26 January 1985 – 2 January 1999
MonarchJuan Carlos I
Vice President
Preceded byCarlos Garaikoetxea
Succeeded byJuan José Ibarretxe
Personal details
Born(1941-06-10)10 June 1941
Elorrio, Biscay, Spain
Died8 April 2024(2024-04-08) (aged 82)
Pedernales or Gautegiz Arteaga, Biscay, Spain
Political partyPNV

José Antonio Ardanza Garro (10 June 1941 – 8 April 2024) was a Spanish politician who became the second elected Lehendakari (President of the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain) after the approval of the Statute of Autonomy. He was in office between 1985 and 1999.

He was a member of the Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ/PNV). During his mandate, which was the longest for a lehendakari in democracy, he achieved the development of the Statute of Autonomy, the reindustrialization of the territory, the maintenance of good relations with Navarra, the territorial deployment of the Ertzaintza and promoted the Ajuria Enea pact in 1988, which at that time became the broadest political agreement to confront the terrorist group ETA and pacify the Basque Country, which during Ardanza's mandate the group killed more than three hundred people and which in 1998 announced the unsuccessful indefinite truce after the Estella pact.[1][2]

Early life and education[edit]

Ardanza was born in Elorrio, Biscay, on 10 June 1941 and as a child he studied at the Diocesan Seminary in Derio and later at the Jesuit School in Durango.[1] He later got a degree in Law at the University of Deusto and between 1969 and 1983 he worked as a legal advisor at Caja Laboral.[1] Ardanza joined in 1961 the youth wing of the EAJ/PNV, the Euzko Gaztedi.[1][3] In January 1965, at the local festivals of a town, a group of young people including Ardanza were arrested for playing the txistu and the drum, instruments typical of Basque folklore that represented an opposition to the Franco regime.[3] Ardanza managed to flee and members of the EAJ/PNV ordered him to hide to prevent his arrest from leading to the dismantling of the youth organization.[3] First, he hid for a month in the home of a relative who was a member of Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, who facilitated him hiding in the Passionist convent of Euba for another month.[3]

As a member of Euzko Gaztedi and its board, Ardanza had to deal with the internal crisis from which one of the parties led to the subsequent creation of ETA and the Basque National Liberation Movement, with Ardanza maintaining a conciliatory position between the radical positions that emerged.[4]

Political career[edit]

After the death of Francisco Franco and the beginning of the Spanish transition to democracy, Ardanza was elected mayor of Mondragón in the first democratic local elections of 1979 as an independent on the EAJ/PNV list, position which he left in 1983 after he was elected member of the General Assemblies of Gipuzkoa.[1]

Lehendakari (1985–1999)[edit]

In early January 1985, lehendakari Carlos Garaikoetxea resigned because of an internal split in the Basque Nationalist Party, and Ardanza was called in to replace him.[1] EAJ/PNV elected him as Garaikooetxea's successor and the Basque Parliament elected him lehendakari with the votes his party and Socialist Party of the Basque Country–Basque Country Left's (PSE-PSOE).[5] Ardanza took office on 25 January 1985.[6]

José Antonio Ardanza and PSE-PSOE leader Txiki Benegas, 1987

Despite the victory of the PSE-PSOE in the 1986 Basque regional election, Ardanza achieved an absolute parliamentary majority to be re-elected lehendakari after winning back the votes of the Basque socialists again on 26 February 1987.[7][5] During this legislature, Ardanza achieved one of his most important milestones in his administration: the Agreement for the Pacification and Normalisation of Euskadi (Anju Eria Pact [es]) in 1988.[1][5] This agreement was the broadest political agreement in the Basque Country, achieving unity of action among the democratic political parties for the eradication of ETA terrorism, the pacification of the territory and the defence of democratic values and coexistence.[1][5][8] Until 1990, Ardanza governed in coalition with PSE-PSOE.[5]

Ardanza won the 1990 Basque regional election and created the first tripartite government between EAJ/PNV, PSE-PSOE and Eusko Alkartasuna (EA), although it lasted only ten months and EA abandoned the coalition.[5] In February 1992, he signed the contract in New York to open the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, which was inaugurated in October 1997.[9][10] He was re-elected lehendakari in the elections of 1994 signing again a tripartite with PSE-PSOE and EA.[5]

In May 1997, Ardanza announced his intention not to run for reelection in the elections of 1998 and leave politics. His last months in office were dedicated to designing the "Plan Ardanza", a peace plan that he promoted in February 1998 to open an unlimited dialogue with Herri Batasuna, a far-left Basque nationalist coalition.[1] The PP and the PSOE reacted against the Plan and the plan failed to succeed on 17 March 1998.[11] Also in that year, ETA's "Estella truce" was achieved, after an agreement between EAJ/PNV and HB in which Ardanza did not intervene.[5] He was succeeded on 2 January 1999 as lehendakari by his vice-lehendakari Juan José Ibarretxe, who managed to maintain the victory of the EAJ/PNV in the elections.[1]

Later years[edit]

After leaving politics, in 1999, Ardanza was named president of the telecommunications company Euskaltel, a position he held until 2011. That year, he presented his memoirs "Pasión por Euskadi".[1]

Personal life and death[edit]

Ardanza died on 8 April 2024, at the age of 82 in his home in Biscay, from cancer.[12][13][14][15][16]

Honors[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Ardanza, el lehendakari que luchó por la cohesión entre diferentes". Euskal Irrati Telebista (in Spanish). 8 April 2024.
  2. ^ "Lehendakaritza". Lehendakari.euskadi.net. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d Goiogana, Iñaki (11 April 2024). "Ardanza, militante del nacionalismo democrático desde 1961". Noticias de Gipuzkoa [es].
  4. ^ Cruz Alli, Juan (13 April 2024). "In memoriam José Antonio Ardanza Garro". Deia.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h "Biografía de José Antonio Ardanza". Norte Exprés. 8 April 2024.
  6. ^ Real Decreto 82/1985, de 25 de enero, por el que se nombra Presidente del Gobierno Vasco a don José Antonio Ardanza Garro. (in Spanish)
  7. ^ Ruiz de Azua, Victorino (27 February 1987). "Ardanza, elegido 'lendakarí' por mayoría absoluta en la primera sesión del Parlamento vasco a la que asistió HB". El País.
  8. ^ "El Pacto de Ajuria Enea". El Mundo. 12 January 1988.
  9. ^ Ardanza firma en Nueva York el contrato para abrir el polémico Museo Guggenheim (in Spanish)
  10. ^ Glamour y aplausos en la apertura del Guggenheim (in Spanish)
  11. ^ Muere José Antonio Ardanza a los 82 años, el 'lehendakari' que más tiempo estuvo al frente del Gobierno vasco (in Spanish)
  12. ^ "Muere José Antonio Ardanza, el lehendakari más longevo en democracia que salvó al PNV tras la escisión". El Diario. 8 April 2024. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  13. ^ Fallece José Antonio Ardanza, el lehendakari más longevo, a los 82 años: el llanto de Ortuzar (in Spanish)
  14. ^ Alli Aranguren, Juan-Cruz (14 April 2024). "In memoriam José Antonio Ardanza Garro". Noticias de Gipuzkoa (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  15. ^ "Iturgaiz (PP) afirma que José Antonio Ardanza fue "un hombre de principios, humano e íntegro"". PressDigital (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  16. ^ "Fallece el lehendakari José Antonio Ardanza". EITB (in Spanish). 8 April 2024. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  17. ^ Jose Antonio Ardanza recibirá la 'Cruz del Árbol de Gernika' (in Spanish)
Preceded by Lehendakari (Basque President)
1985–1999 		Succeeded by
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