The nationalist sentiment in Euskadi, which was fanned by Sabino Arana, the founder in 1895 of the Basque Nationalist Party, eventually found an outlet, after a number of vicissitudes, in the passing by the Cortes of the 2nd Republic, in October 1936, of the Autonomy Statute. Its repeal by the regime of General Franco marked the beginning of the emergence of a number of centres with a distinct national awareness.

The new situation arising from the restoration of democracy in Spain brought the political recognition of the historic singularity of this territory with the granting of a pre-autonomy regime, December 1977, the restoration of the Local Councils and the Juntas generales, which had been abolished in 1876, and finally, the Autonomy Statute in December 1979.