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Bloque Nacionalista Galego
Leader	Xosé Manuel Beiras, National Council president Anxo Quintana, national spokesperson
Founded	1982
Official ideology/ political position	Galician nationalism, Leftism
Website	www.bng-galiza.org

Galicia

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Galicia

Parliament of Galicia Xunta de Galicia

Spanish Parliament - Legislative branch The Spanish Crown - Head of State Political parties in Galicia Elections in Galicia

President of Galicia Emilio Pérez Touriño

High Court of Galicia

Galician Statute of Autonomy Santiago de Compostela

Galicia Portal See also: Politics of Spain

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The Galician Nationalist Bloc (Galician: Bloque Nacionalista Galego, Spanish: Bloque Nacionalista Gallego, BNG) is a Galician nationalist political alliance. Formed in 1982, the BNG is a regionalist group advocates extended autonomy for Galicia by expanding the powers of the devolved Parliament of Galicia. The BNG also promotes affirmative action for the Galician language. The main leaders of BNG are Xosé Manuel Beiras, president of the National Council, and Anxo Quintana, national spokesperson.

The BNG is composed of independents is a federation of political parties, constituting a permanent electoral coalition. At one time, the BNG supported the independence of Galicia as a long-term goal, but after absorbing the regionalist Galician Unity in 1990, the BNG moved to a policy opposing Galician independence and supporting autonomy within Spain, even though some of its constituent parties have not abandoned their separatist stances.

After the 2001 elections the BNG was the second largest political group in the Galician Parliament with 17 seats, slightly ahead of the Socialist Party of Galicia (Partido Socialista de Galicia, PSdG), the Galician branch of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE). In the 2005 elections they lost four seats and slipped to third place, after the PSdG. Both PSdG and BNG agreed to a coalition government to lead Galicia, replaceing the two consecutive absolute majorities governments led by the People's Party (Partido Popular). This is the first time in government for the Galician nationalists. Anxo Quintana received the vice-presidency.

The party won 208,688 votes (0.8 percent) in the 2004 Spanish general election, gaining two of the 350 seats in the Spanish Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados), the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislature.

They lost their one MEP in the 2004 European Parliament election.

BNG describes itself as a patriotic front which works on an assembly-based model in which each individual member votes in his own name. Although the vast majority of its members are independents (affiliated exclusively to the BNG), the BNG does recognise a number of other groups within it, although they do not play a direct role in the BNG as such. Joint affiliation with other political groups not recognized by the BNG is not allowed. The political groups currently recognised by the BNG (via a lengthy ratification process) are:

• Galician People's Union (Unión do Povo Galego, UPG) - communist
• Nationalist Left (Esquerda Nacionalista, EN) - social democratic
• Galician Unity (Unidade Galega, UG) - social democratic
• Socialist Collective (Colectivo Socialista, CS) - socialist
• Inzar (I) - formed through the merger of the Galician branches of the Maoist Communist Movement (Movimiento Comunista, MC) and the Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist League (Liga Comunista Revolucionaria, LCR)
• Galician Nationalist Party-Galeguist Party (Partido Nacionalista Galego-Partido Galeguista, PNG) - liberal democratic

This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

• BNG website
• UPG website
• EN website
• PNG website

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