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ManfromMiddletown is fond of mentioning the fact that Navarra retained self-government until the 18th century, and that the fueros (royal charter) were allowed to stand by Franco. This is because Navarra was a hotbed of Carlism (Traditionalist Royalist Catholic nationalism) and sided with Franco during the Civil War (unlike Biscay and Guipuzcoa).

Hey now ;) you get your kicks from prime numbers, for me its the protoconstutionalism on fueros that gets me excited.  The UPN is a seperate party from the PP in the same way the the CSU is to the CDU in Germany.  Navarra is extremely unique in the extent to which it retained political autonomy even while Franco was in power.  The thing about Navarra is that in the mountains in the north it's basically an extension of th Basque country, being heavily Basque, and basque nationalist voters.  

In Pamplona, there's more since of Navarra(Nafarroa) as an identity, while the Ribera, the souther part of the province near the Ebro is heavily Spanish and is similiar to La Rioja.  Navarra is a distinct identity seperate from the Basque identity, althought Pamplona has been a hotbed for Batasuna and ETA as the Basque country proper got too hot to handle.  I don't think you can understand the seriously militaristic overtones that lie just below the surface in Navarra, until you been there for a while.  Security is much, much tighter around government buildings in Pamplona than in Madrid or even San Sebastian.  The always have armored vehicles outside the regional parliament, or at least did when I was there.  24 hour guard, with Kalashnikovs no less.  

Distinctly unsettling.  

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Thu Apr 27th, 2006 at 11:02:11 PM EST
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