The candidate for lehendakari of EH Bildu, Pello Otxandiano, has proposed that the PNV lead the next Basque Government as the most voted force and has left the door open to reaching agreements with the jeltzales within a new collaboration policy, which has already been undertaken in Navarre. Furthermore, he has stated that he sees the PSE-EE “with excessive difficulties in finding its place in the new era” and has accused it of defending positions in Euskadi such as the one that Vox maintains in the Balearic Islands on linguistic matters.
In an interview given to Radio Euskadi, Otxandiano has assured that EH Bildu is going to the next regional elections to win, with the vocation to be the first force and, therefore, to govern, “but the citizens will say that.” “We are a political force with a vocation for government and it is not about achieving power for the sake of holding power, but rather about occupying government responsibilities to be able to drive transformation processes. We need a push that puts this country in a scenario that it deserves.” and is capable of facing it,” he indicated.
For this reason, he believes that “it is good that EH Bildu participates in governments and its imprint is noted in public policies.” Regarding future alliances, he has said that “a new time is opening in this country” and Navarra and Pamplona are an “example” of this. A very interesting political equation is being posed there. The reactionary right is excluded from the political equation and a space for collaboration is proposed between the progressive forces where the most voted force governs,” he stated.
In the case of Navarra, he recalled that it is the PSN, and in Pamplona EH Bildu, and he stressed that the PNV “is in that equation in Nafarroa, through Geroa Bai”, with which the sovereignist formation in Pamplona governs. “This space for collaboration is a new policy, a non-exclusive way of doing politics, which I believe must also be brought to these three territories,” he said in reference to the Basque Autonomous Community, which is now “an exception.”
“We must normalize politics and we must move from exclusive pacts to inclusive pacts that respond to the interests and challenges of this country, and to new, much more inclusive forms of governance,” he stressed. Pello Otxandiano has stated that in Euskadi, if EH Bildu is the most voted force, it should lead the Basque Government, and if the sovereigntist formation is the first force, it should be the one that heads the Executive.
“And, later, all types of collaborative governments can be articulated and can give rise to coalition formulas, which can give rise to coalition formulas with the support of another force to the opposition from outside on a program, a transformative country agenda and progressive. So, there the range can be very wide, and it seems to me that it is a good premise that the most voted force leads,” he insisted, to include the PNV among those progressive formations.
After ensuring that he has not spoken with the general secretary of the PSE-EE, Eneko Andueza, he pointed out that “a new time is opening, the script has changed and that we must be able to adjust or adapt to the new situation.”
“I have heard Jesús Eguiguren say that it cannot be that Pedro Sánchez is more Basque than the PSE-EE. A time is opening up in which we can manage the plurinational nature of the State in a democratic way, and that requires that context also lands in Basque politics,” he explained.
In his opinion, for that, the socialists have to “adapt a little to the new situation.” “I see the PSE-EE as having excessive difficulties in finding its place in the new era,” he remarked. Asked if he would support Andueza as Lehendakari, Pello Otxandiano responded yes, if he were the party with the most votes.
Likewise, he believes that the PSE-EE in Euskadi “is defending positions on the linguistic issue that are that of Vox in the Balearic Islands”, which represents an “anomaly”.
