thumb|222px|Xabier Arzalluz.
Xabier Arzalluz Antia (24 August 1932 – 28 February 2019) was a Basque politician, leader of the Basque Nationalist Party from 1979 until 2004. He was a nationalist and a Christian Democrat, considered during the period one of the most powerful politicians in the Basque Autonomous Community, making strategic decisions for the party he led from 1986 onwards.
Early years
Arzalluz was born in Azkoitia, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country. From a Carlist family, he studied in a Jesuit school in Durango. During the 1960s, he received degrees in Law and Philosophy at the University of Zaragoza. He spent some time in Frankfurt-am-Main preparing a thesis on German Christian Democracy and studying Theology.
Arzalluz was the main spokesman for the Basque Nationalist Party, publishing his opinions every Sunday in the Basque newspaper Deia and in many public speeches during PNV rallies, some of which took place on Party Day and on the Day of the Basque Homeland. While liked by PNV voters, he was the least popular party leader among the general Spanish public in 1997.
He had a reciprocal admiration for the Italian Christian Democrat leaders Francesco Cossiga and Giulio Andreotti. In spite of his contacts with European Christian Democrats, the PNV had to leave the Christian Democrat International in the 1990s because of pressure from the Spanish conservative People's Party. Besides his political role, he had also been a professor of Constitutional Law (in the Basque language) at the University of Deusto in Bilbao until 1999.
Death
He died in Bilbao on 28 February 2019 aged 86.