None of the sources consulted offers any information on his parents, except that his father, Juan Arrúe, was the first organist in the local San Pedro church;[3] he also served in a number of nearby villages and towns giving lessons.

[9] The young Antonio obtained his bachillerato in the Lecároz college, run by the Capuchin friars in Elizondo, in the Navarrese region of Valle de Baztán, few miles from the French frontier.

[12] The couple settled in San Sebastián; Antonio continued with his law practice, opening the business in the very centre of the city;[13] gradually he specialized in rural rent and heritage issues, working with a number of local companies, associations and institutions.

[24] His speeches covered key Carlist topics: siding with the Church against Republican secularization, hailing Gipuzkoan caserios as bulwarks of loyalty, defending traditionalist monarchy as a warrant of regional fueros and confronting Basque nationalism as illusory and deceptive; there were also some social threads present.

[33] Arrúe soon became disillusioned by military rule in the Nationalist zone, growing particularly anxious about preponderance of Falange in Gipuzkoa and about centralizing designs of the regime, perceived as a threat to Traditionalism, Basque culture and provincial identity.

[34] Already in October 1936 the Gipuzkoan Junta Carlista de Guerra, animated by Arrúe, voiced publicly against composition of the provincial comision gestora,[35] bluntly stating that there are two wars: one in the trenches, and one in the corridors of power.

[37] Faced with growing threat of amalgamating Carlism within a monopolist state party, just a week between the Unification Decree he signed a circular, urging every Gipuzkoan Carlist to maintain loyalty to the Comunión.

[40] Standoff between the military and Carlism continued as Don Javier re-entered Spain in November; Arrúe was appointed his personal secretary,[41] touring the frontlines and making 4,000 km across Vascongadas, Castile, Extremadura and Andalusia.

[42] In December 1937 the adventure came to an abrupt end when in Granada Arrúe was reached by the military detention order; only thanks to intervention of collaborationist Carlists he was allowed to make it to the Burgos prison himself instead of having been escorted in handcuffs by Guardia Civil.

[47] In August 1942 as head of the Gipuzkoan junta he signed a manifesto prior to planned official celebrations commemorating the siege of Tolosa;[48] the document urged loyalty to Don Javier and Fal, claiming that the future of Spain lies only with Carlism.

He was with those judging that the regency aroused little enthusiasm amongst the rank-and-file and merely encouraged damaging dynastical competition; hence, he preferred that Don Javier announces his personal claim to the throne, which indeed took place in 1952.

[57] With José María Valiente emerging as a new national jefe, in 1956 Arrúe tried to oppose his course by forming Junta del Regiones;[58] this semi-rebellious body was bent on preventing rapprochement with Francoism and envisioned a loose alliance of Carlists, nationalists, regionalists, Catholics and even some sectors of the Falange.

[68] When the claimant decided to compete with Basque nationalism by setting up an inter-regional Vasco-Navarrese council named Junta Foral Superior in 1961, Arrúe was considered an obvious representative of Gipuzkoa[69] and a leading candidate to head the entire body.

His opponents considered Arrúe a power-hungry Carlist version of Aguirre, keen to build his Vascongadas fiefdom,[70] and as there were no suitable counter-candidates, the idea of Junta Foral was eventually abandoned.

[81] He immediately carried into the parliament the just-launched campaign to re-introduce concierto economico,[82] though despite attempts to mount some public pressure,[83] the initiative came to nothing producing only minor alterations to the original abolition law.

[84] As part of a hardly veiled dissident strategy, Arrúe joined procuradores who, unable to get adequate hearing in the chamber, staged rump informal sessions across the country;[85] this “Cortes transhumantes” was formally banned in 1968.

[87] On July 22, 1969, Arrúe recorded the second of the two most emotional moments in his political career: in an open, one-by-one Cortes voting in front of Franco he voiced against Juan Carlos de Borbón as the future king of Spain.

He was the moving spirit behind its newly established commission dedicated to bertsolarism[112] and promoted the genre[113] by organizing local qualifications,[114] leading up to the final contest formatted as a major San Sebastián cultural event in 1960,[115] 1962,[116] 1965 and 1967.

[119] He facilitated a number of editorial initiatives, acknowledged in particular for the Zavala's 1961 launch of Colección Auspoa series[120] and the 1964 re-print of Gero, a monumental 17th century Basque literary work.

[122] As an author he popularized Basque culture by writing[123] to La Voz de España, Egan, Euskera, Eusko Gogoa, El Fuerista, Zeruko Argia[124] and by delivering public lectures.

Since the 1930s he has been hailed by media, colleagues and Vascófilos as a great speechmaker,[141] who has not only transplanted spoken Basque from barns to congress halls, but also brought it to unprecedented rhetorical mastery.

[143] His practical contribution to written Basque, apart from scientific articles, covers also short poems, usually humorous light pieces like a praise of the Jerez sherry, occasionally winning prizes during local contests.

He is credited mostly for his support as organizer, lawyer and politician, a person who delivered an umbrella sheltering Basque institutions and enabling cultural development, shaped and directed by the others.