Basque political current affairs have moved to the screen of pacts and the formation of the new Basque government, so that the parties are reducing the analysis of Sunday’s results to the internal sphere. Both the PNB and the PSE have avoided wasting time and assume that they will find themselves in the formation of a government similar to the current one, although probably with more socialist weight. In the middle, there remains a variable to which they will have to respond, especially in the case of the Basque nationalists: how to deal with the persistent growth of EH Bildu, which has tied them in seats and won in Gipuzkoa and Álaba.
The president of the PNB Executive, Andoni Ortuzar, acknowledged yesterday that the Abertzale coalition has had a “remarkable” result, although he clarified that this formation cannot mark the formation of the new Basque government or change “the way to govern from the PNB, which should be aligned with society”. In this sense, he pointed out that they will take into account “touches of attention from the public”, an expression he already used after last year’s elections to make it clear that they will make a self-critical reading of his victory for the minimum in Sunday’s elections.
Ortuzar opened the door to specific agreements with EH Bildu, although he expressed that it is up to him to move the tab in the Abertzale coalition. “It will be necessary to see which Bildu we will have this legislature and if it is the same as we saw in the campaign. It remains to be seen whether he did it to win votes or because he wanted a change in his policies. If the change is real, we will find it in laws and initiatives”, he pointed out. The Basque nationalist leader mentioned the renewal of the self-government framework as an example of the areas in which they could reach agreements with the pro-independence parties.
Regarding the distribution of power in the next Basque government, the president of the PNB has indicated that they will first talk about the government program and then the distribution of portfolios. “We will make a government program with which we are comfortable with two formations”, he pointed out.
In view of this position, Arnaldo Otegi, general coordinator of EH Bildu, regretted that it is going back to “the day of the groundhog” because, in his opinion, the PNB and the PSE will form a Basque government that is “neither abertzale nor left-wing”, and urged the two formations to take into account “the citizen mandate”, which has been “very abertzale and left-wing”.
“It’s very curious, because we spent the whole campaign hearing the PNB candidate say ‘we’ll see’, because they don’t trust Sánchez. Now, on the other hand, it took them two hours after the elections to say that they will form a government, that they will be generous, that the PSOE will ask for more, because it seems that they are shutting down that very dubious government with the PSOE and that Sánchez has immediately evaded all doubts We will continue with our constructive attitude, but we believe that this mandate must have political consequences in these three provinces”, he indicated.
In this sense, Otegi also opened up to specific agreements, even questioning the already confirmed alliance between Jeltzales and Socialists: “People are interested in how we will improve Osakidetza, housing, our sovereignty… and above all these matters there are possibilities of agreements”.
Finally, the Abertzale leader made it clear that the pact between Basque nationalists and socialists will not influence his support for Pedro Sánchez in the Congress of Deputies. “We don’t act like that”, said Otegi, and explained that after the general elections the “democratic mandate” of the Basque voters was “that the extreme right not govern” and the Abertzale coalition will fulfill it, regardless of what it does the PSE in Euskadi.
