Are the Basques under Spain's control?

Answer 1

The Basques are a nation located on both sides of the western Pyrennees mountains. So, they are in Sapin and France. In Spain most of them (2.2 million) live in the so-called Basque Autonomous Community whose capital is Vitoria-Gasteiz and its biggest town Bilbao. Navarre is also culturally a Basque region but it makes up a different Autonomous Community the majority of its population reject to join the so-called Basque Community mentioned before. Basques have their own institutions and some devolved powers, remarkably the right to establish and collect all taxes paid by their citizens. In any case there is currently a big discussion on the need to make a new agreement with Sapin that would recognize them officially as a distinct nation in Spain. Madrid rejects negotiating the issue. In France they are part of the département des Pyrénnées-Atlantiques of which they are about 40 per cent of the whole population. The y don't have their own self-governing institutions and currently they are asking for a départment only for themselves. Basque language is a preindoeuropean language, the only one that remains in Europe, and although it was forbidden for years to speak it , it is spoken by around 40% of the population being used for teaching at schools at the Basque Autonomous Community, where it is an official language.