05/28/2020 05:00
Long ago, EH Bildu left behind the immovable strategy that prevailed with ETA active to accept without hesitation that the political field of action is not limited to Basque borders – it is necessary to remember the speeches of the historic ‘abertzale’ Jon Idígoras in the Congress of Deputies on the uselessness of this scenario. The battle, he was convinced, it is also won in Madrid, as the PNV well knows, which has important political returns from the Aznar, Zapatero, Rajoy and Sánchez governments in exchange for their immersion in ‘Spanish politics’. And, of course, that the same strategy is shared, and also with the approval The Spanish Executive, which has widened the way to agreements with the former Batasuna, has known to the horn of the nationalist formation, Sánchez’s preferred partner, with the Basque elections just around the corner.
The sequence of events speaks for itself. Wednesday, May 20: the Government of Pedro Sánchez agrees with Bildu to repeal the labor reform in a pact that has now entered a spiral of nuances, corrections and uncertainties after the major stir generated in all spheres, including the PSOE. Friday: the PNV president, Andoni Ortuzar, raises his tone before this agreement, understood as a touch of attention from the Government to the ‘jeltzale’ training that it is possible to explore other avenues in view of the expensive return that the PNV support in Congress implies, and warns Sánchez that the loyalty of his party is about to fall apart .
EH Bildu gains weight in Basque politics: from the blank check to Sánchez to the notice to the PNV
The ‘abertzale’ left has been in the best political position since ETA abandoned arms, driven by the political moment in Spain: it aspires to be key in future governance
Sunday: Lendakari Iñigo Urkullu announces his discomfort and reproaches Sánchez for his pact with Bildu before the autonomous presidents in the traditional weekly meeting since the state of alarm was decreed to deal with the coronavirus. Monday: in the midst of nationalist anger, the Spanish government makes an eloquent gesture and decides to activate the transfer of some thirty transfers agreed to the Basque Country after the established schedule was stopped abruptly by the pandemic, with the materialization in addition to the first three competitions in June, at the gates of the electoral campaign of the elections of July 12.
Tuesday: the Basque Government puts pressure on Sánchez by publicly revealing that he has demanded from the Spanish Government the transfer to Basque prisons of ETA prisoners and other inmates with “family roots in the Basque Country” who are in prisons located outside the Basque Country before the effects of the coronavirus and to avoid infections in the “massive” family trips to “very distant” prisons. It even states that there has already been an “interlocution” to materialize this approach. Wednesday: The PNV announces with hype and cymbal, with an urgent note and a subsequent appearance by the spokesman in Congress, Aitor Esteban, who has started the exclusive management of the minimum vital income in the Basque Country and Navarra – both communities will assume exclusively the functions of Social Security in processing petitions and payments with State funds – in exchange for their support for this popular measure.
The PNV is not willing to have EH Bildu steal the limelight in Madrid, hence the sequence of events in response to the Sánchez pact
The PNV does not want, nor is it willing, that EH Bildu steal the limelight in Madrid, hence the chain of events in response to Sánchez’s controversial pact with the former Batasuna to repeal the labor reform and increase the spending ceiling of Basque and Navarre institutions. In fact, Ortuzar, through the Basque public television speaker, undervalued on Friday the content and scope of the agreement between Sánchez and the ‘abertzale’ coalition by, on the one hand, questioning the materialization of the labor reform and, on the other hand, detracting from the importance effective financing of the three institutional levels of the country —Government, county councils and municipalities—, since, as he explained, they have “A way a little more serious and safe than what this agreement says. “
For practical purposes, the agreement around the management of the minimum vital income to assume a management that is denied to the rest of the communities, and whose negotiation has culminated throughout this week Ortuzar and the vice president Carmen Calvo, not only supposes restoring confidence of the PNV with the Spanish Government – “our trust deposit it’s a little fuller“Esteban said this Wednesday— but it serves the‘ jeltzale ’formation for send a clear message before his great rival at the polls regarding his effectiveness in Madrid.
The agreement on the management of the minimum vital income not only restores confidence with Sánchez: it is also a message from the PNV to its rival at the polls
Because the electoral war between the PNV and EH Bildu for supremacy in the Basque Country exceeds the limits of the Basque Country and has reached Madrid, which has become in recent months the relevant battlefield of the two sovereignist formations facing add terrain at the regional level for the appointment with the polls of July 12. The ‘jeltzales’, accustomed to exploiting the weakness of governments in Spain, are now witnessing with great concern the increased prominence of the ‘abertzale’ left in Spanish politics.
The battle, with the Basque elections now on the horizon, comes from afar. There was a significant before and after. April 2019: EH Bildu gives its “decisive” support for the validation of six social decrees of a needy Sánchez government in the Permanent Deputation of Congress at the gates of the general elections on the 28th of that month. Its leader, Arnaldo Otegi, sells this achievement to “modify public policies” in Spain as an act “In defense of the national sovereignty of the Basque people”. In addition, publicly, different voices of the ‘abertzale’ coalition they boast of their position of strength in Madrid by unveiling numerous calls of Sánchez’s ministers to beg your favorable vote to the decrees. Soon after, the former Batasuna offered Sánchez a blank check for his investiture to “stop the right.”
Sánchez and Iglesias agree to reduce internal tension due to the pact with Bildu
The president and vice president shield the coalition government and consider the crisis, the most serious since it was formed, to be over, after the Calviño camp
It was the beginning of a new strategic positioning in Madrid, which had never been a playing field for EH Bildu. What at first was more of a poisoned offer to the Sánchez government, harassed by the right due to its dependence on the pro-independence forces, without ignoring the implicit message to the PNV, has now turned into a strategy of open confrontation with the PNV, whom it intends to detract from the leading role it has historically had with the PP and PSOE. With their current five seats, Bildu wants to face the six PNV representatives in Congress when parliamentary arithmetic gives great power to both seats in the face of the weak situation of the PSOE and Podemos Government due to the lack of support, especially when the ERC seems to have off hook of the support previously provided to the Executive after Sánchez threw himself into the arms of Citizens on two occasions to keep active the extension of the state of alarm.
With the ballot boxes on the horizon, the former Batasuna seeks to convey the message that its five seats in Congress that it previously repudiated may be key to achieve important economic and social counterparts for the Basque Country, and even more so given the devastating effects of the pandemic on employment and social rights among the ineffective management of the Urkullu Government health crisis. The ballot boxes will not only examine the management of the Lendakari pandemic: they will also have to face their controversial actions at the polls in the event of the collapse of the Zaldibar landfill, which keeps two workers buried under tons of rubble more than three months later.
Bildu seeks to convey the message that his five seats in Congress can be key to achieving economic and social returns for the Basque Country
Aware of this battle for who achieves the most benefits for the Basque Country in Madrid, the PNV has sold the minimum vital income agreement with all the ‘honors’ in an eloquent note that contains a clear message to Bildu aimed at subtracting its ability to influence in Madrid. “This is a great agreement for the citizens of the CAV and Navarra, who see their own effective social protection systems shielded, which will continue to be managed by their institutions. This pact, in addition, supposes a political achievement in a context of recentralizing temptations and demonstrates, once again, the effectiveness of the PNV in the defense of the interests of the Basques in Madrid ”, notes the clarifier statement of the ‘jeltzale’ training, accompanied by a copy of the agreement reached with the Government in an unusual decision. Later, in addition, Esteban appeared this Wednesday at the PNV headquarters in Bilbao, in Sabin Etxea, to detail the agreement reached in an intervention in which the implicit messages to EH Bildu were not lacking.
It is the PNV’s response to Otegi, who last week celebrated the agreement with Sánchez to repeal the labor reform and increase the level of indebtedness of Basque and Navarre institutions as a milestone for “all the Spanish working class “ (not just the Basque one) at a time when the pandemic has led ERTE to more than 200,000 employees only in the Basque Country. “When EH Bildu is decisive, improves people’s lives. I want to send greetings to the entire working class of the Spanish State. What unites us with the Spanish working class it is not belonging to the same nation, but to the same class“Highlighted the leader‘ abertzale ’through social networks in a few significant words to highlight the significance of the pact beyond the borders of the Basque Country.
The Government approves a de-escalation à la carte for the Basque Country apart from the rest
Part of the order that regulates phase 1 will not be applicable in the community. The PNV, vital for the Government, has known how to negotiate to have a lack of confidence according to its plans
The demonstrations and events give way to a long distance race between PNV and Bildu with Ajuria Enea as the goal on 12-J. In this competition, in which Moncloa plays a determining role never seen to date, the PNV clings to the achievements obtained in Madrid during the coronavirus health crisis, in which it has achieved benefits from the Spanish Government in the de-escalation already from phase 1, with a relaxation of the alarm state on demand, apart from the rest of the communities, which included the mobility between provinces —Among neighboring municipalities located in different historical territories— or that the Burgos county of Treviño carry out the lack of confinement with Álava in a measure of relevant political connotations.
The PNV and the Government of Urkullu achieved the commitment of the Sánchez Executive to put all resources to be able to get to the polls, even in the event that by July 12 the alarm state was still in force, depending on the evolution of the pandemic. For the elections, there are still long weeks, in which the Spanish Government does not have many faces to look at before the dwindling support in order to continue with its plans to return to the ‘new normal’. With whom and at what cost?
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