The Lehendakari kicks off his San Francisco Visit

Earlier this morning on the steps of the City Hall of South San Francisco, Mayor Pedro Gonzalez and San Francisco Basque Cultural Center Vice-President Xabier Berrueta welcomed the Lehendakari to California and South San Francisco. The Lehendakari expressed his gratitude and then watched as the Basque Flag (Ikurrina) was raised to the sound of French Bugles played by the Zazpiak Bat Klika. The Basque Flag will fly over South San Francisco City Hall through the weekend. 

Later in the afternoon, the Lehendakari visited the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto . The Lehendakari was invited to speak at Stanford, nearly a year and a half ago by Joan Ramon Resina, the chair of the Spanish and Portuguese Departments, and the Stanford Forum on Contemporary Europe. The event took place at the Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center and began promptly at 4:00pm.  Mr. Resina introduced Mr. Ibarretxe who began his presentation in front of approximatley 140 people. The Lehendakari’s presentation was broken down into two main parts. The first part gave a high level overview of Basque history, the political topography of the seven historical Basque provinces in Spain and France, some of the Basque region’s famous artists, some economic and social statistics of the region. The second part of the Lehendakari’s presentation dealt with his proposed road map to peace that he delivered to the Basque Parliament on September 28th of last year. His main point was that the violence and problem of ETA needs to separated from the political normalization process, and that in his opinion the failure to do so was one of the causes for the failure of past Spanish central government efforts to resolve the Basque conflict. The Lehendakari make the following four points for his road map:

1. Do not combine or confuse the issues with ETA violence and the process of political normalization, which significantly outdates the existence of ETA.
2. ETA violence must cease regardless of the outcome of the political normalization process.
3. Defense of Human Rights without exception.
4. Basque society’s right to decide it’s future.

The Lehendakari concluded his presentation by answering an array of questions from the audience. 

The Lehendakari will visit with political dignitaries, including Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, on Friday in Sacramento, and will conclude his visit to San Francisco by attending a special reception in his honor at the San Francisco Basque Cultural Center on Saturday.

More information on the Lehendakari’s road map to peace can be found on the latest issue of Euskal Etxeak magazine.

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