The handover of the PNV candidate witness from Iñigo Urkullu to Imanol Pradales is not going as the Jeltzales wanted, as a result of the leaks, although this Sunday they have tried to turn the situation around. Both met at a party event in Sukarrieta (Bizkaia) and embraced each other. Urkullu also wished him “the best” and offered him “all his help in the internal process.” A simple meeting that serves the jeltzales to close ranks and turn the page on what happened in the last 48 hours.
The meeting took place at the event on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the death of Sabino Arana, next to the Sukarrieta cemetery. Pradales was the first to arrive and became the object of all eyes. Urkullu’s arrival had also been announced and there was an obvious curiosity to see how they would greet each other.
The Lehendakari arrived shortly after and, after a brief and relaxed conversation with the top leaders of the party, Imanol Pradales approached the group they formed, offered his hand and they embraced each other.
Later, in statements to journalists, Iñigo Urkullu wished his successor “the best” as candidate for Lehendakari, and offered his “help” in whatever he needed. Furthermore, he has refused to reveal whether he was willing to continue in the electoral race for Lehendakaritza, and has limited himself to saying that he has been the party’s top representative, so he knows “what this is like.”
“I have said it publicly, the PNV had to be free to make the decision it deemed appropriate. I am a party man, I have been the highest representative of the PNV and I know what this is like. I know that things have their beginning and their end,” he stated.
In any case, Urkullu recalled that this “is not the end” because he still has a mandate ahead of him and commitments to society to fulfill, and he has admitted that he has not yet scheduled a date for holding the regional elections. His call will depend, as he has stressed, on “the circumstances that arise in politics, not only in Euskadi but also at the state and European level.”
Urkullu has also explained that Imanol Pradales, whom he taught when he was a teacher at the Asti Leku ikastola, was “a brilliant student and he is showing it.”
The Lehendakari also referred to the words that the president of the EBB, Andoni Ortuzar, dedicated to him during the political event this Sunday, thanking him, “on behalf of the entire party”, for his “immense work” and career over three legislatures, something that has provoked applause from those in attendance.
Urkullu has said that he is “grateful” and has pointed out that this “is not an end” because there is still a legislature ahead, “and it is an incentive to continue working as before.”
The Lehendakari has avoided clarifying how the Executive of the Jeltzale formation informed him that he would not repeat as a candidate for the presidency of the Basque Government: “Those things are internal and I have them for myself.”
Meanwhile, the president of the EBB of the PNV, Andoni Ortuzar, has asked in his speech that, from now on, the focus be put back on Basque politics and the stage focused on “what is happening in Madrid” be closed. Furthermore, he has denounced “the Spanishization of Basque politics”, and has warned that it is in Euskadi where social services, their “well-being and quality of life” are guaranteed to Basques.
“We have the feeling that a part of our society is getting lost, and is losing the true focus of Basque politics because everything is happening in Madrid,” he added.
In his opinion, it has been “a long time since what happens in Madrid is what dominates the political scene here as well, and that is not good.” “Basque politics has to be at the service of Euskadi, at the service of the Basque people; neither paying attention to what is happening in Madrid, nor abandoning our tasks waiting for others to do them and from other institutions,” he said.
