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BASQUE nationalists want to replace Madrid with Edinburgh as their capital. And the fringe group plan to adopt the kilt as their national dress. The jokey call came in the run-up to carnival season in the Basque region around Bilbao in north-west Spain. But Andoni Ortuzar – president of the Basque National Party (PNV) – said he had a real political point to make. He said: “We have a tradition of carnival in the Basque country and I used this to suggest we adopt the kilt as part of our national dress. “I also said in a satirical way that we should annex the Basque country to Scotland because they are going to be able to choose their future whereas we cannot.” The PNV gave their annual carnival in Bilbao a Scottish theme. And they have started a campaign for the Basque country, Euskal Herria in Basque, to be annexed to Scotland to form “Euskotland”. Dressed in a kilt, Ortuzar said he was “a little jealous” that Scots would be having an independence referendum. He added: “Scotland and the Basque country are identical twins. “We are both noted for our stubbornness, we both love football, rugby, whisky and a version of tossing the caber is a fixture of traditional Basque sport.” Ortuzar pointed out that both countries have a centuries long dispute with their southern neighbours. He added: “We are like two drops of water, except that they are going to decide for themselves but we are told we can’t.” The Basque country has its own police body and manage public finances with virtually no intervention from the central government of Spain. The PNV have had close links with the SNP in the past but it is not thought talks on a political union have ever been discussed.
