The debate on the possible renewal of Gernika’s status has not yet taken off, although the Basque PP already speaks of the “independence drift” that “hides” the renewal of Basque self-government. The president of the Popular Basques, Carlos Iturgaiz, has urged the PSE to make “every effort” so that the new status “is not a reality”, since it would lead the Basque Country to the “precipice”. The reading of the PP leader Basque contrasts with the commitment of the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, to avoid a train wreck and comply with constitutional legality, so that Iturgaiz’s commitment has more to do with a political position in the face of the new electoral cycle that is already looming.
The reading of the popular is that the debate that can be opened around the renewal of the Gernika Statute can serve to strengthen them, especially if the PNV bets on a deep renewal or a sovereignist look.
The popular Basques have left more than 250,000 votes in the last two decades and have lost all the institutional power they once held, especially in Álava. In the last elections to the Basque Parliament, in coalition with Ciudadanos, they remained at 60,650 votes and were the fifth party in the chamber, far from the 326,933 supports they achieved in 2001 (the turnout was much higher then) or the 251,743 achieved by Iturgaiz himself in 1998, elections in which they were the second party.
The latest polls do not reflect a rise of the popular in the municipal and regional elections, but rather a slight weakening.
In this context, the popular ones understand that their electoral recovery in Euskadi could come, on the one hand, thanks to the effect of Feijóo’s arrival at the general secretary of the party, and, on the other, a confrontation with the PNV over self-government.
Iturgaiz has made these statements on the renewal of the Statute in a meeting with Eneko Andueza, leader of the Basque PSE. The meeting between both formations, initially announced for the month of February, was suspended after the agreement that the Socialists reached with EH Bildu in the Alava town of Iruña de Oca.
The leader of the Basque PP has indicated that the popular and socialists must be joined by the defense of the current Statute and “the opposition to the drift towards independence that Basque nationalism hides behind the new status”. In his opinion, the PSE must “help” so that the new statute “is not a reality”, for being “pro-independence and disruptive”.
Despite these statements, the truth is that the debate on the renewal of the Gernika Statute, still incomplete and unaddressed since its approval 40 years ago, has not yet taken off. The Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, took up this matter in the first plenary session in the Basque Parliament of the political course, in September, and gave some clues about the coordinates they propose to address it.
Urkullu recovered the concept of the Basque “political agreement”, a formula that includes the idea of ??bilaterality and that, from his point of view, would allow avoiding the erosion and “unilateral modification” of the agreement reached, referring to the precedent of breaches of the Statute . The lehendakari also pointed out that “a solid consensus” will be sought and a pact with the central government that would avoid a train crash.
In any case, throughout the political course, marked during the first months by the pandemic and later by the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis, there has been no progress on this debate.
The question is whether from September the Lehendakari will bet on opening this debate or will prevent it from coinciding with the start of a new electoral cycle in Basque politics that will last until the summer of 2024.
There are obvious discrepancies between the PNV and PSE, partners in the main Basque institutions, and the Jeltzales have doubts that broad agreements can be reached in a climate conditioned by an electoral struggle to which the holding of general elections would be added. What is evident is that the popular Basques would feel comfortable in that debate
