MadridArnaldo Otegi led the tribute demonstration to Josu and Santi, ex-members of Herri Batasuna murdered by the GAL and the extreme right in 1984 and 1989, in Bilbao two weekends ago, which gathered up to 30,000 people. A demonstration of muscle by EH Bildu and who could be called to be his candidate for lehendakari. Otegi, however, announced this Monday at the political table of the pro-independence coalition that he will not aspire to the presidency of Euskadi. With this step aside, an almost total renewal of faces in Basque politics is completed in the run-up to next year’s spring elections, after the PNB has removed Íñigo Urkullu and the PSE and the PP have also opted for new profiles.
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Otegi does want to continue as general coordinator of EH Bildu – he already applied a few days ago in this regard – but he believes that the fight for lehendakari does not belong to him. “I have been making this decision for a long time. It has been well thought out and I did not take it alone”, he explained in a press conference after first communicating it to the formation’s political table. “There is a new generation that wants to do things differently and that represents the new values of Basque society,” added Otegi. His diagnosis is that you need to make decisions “when things are good” and now EH Bildu is in a good moment, benefiting from a “change in the political cycle” in the Basque Country in electoral terms and positioning itself as an “alternative “, has said.
Awaiting what Bildu’s bet will be – it will be communicated throughout December -, the PNB will formalize this Monday in a meeting of its executive the choice of Imanol Pradales, with the aim of rejuvenating without leaving aside a political and management profile. This Sunday they met in Sukarrieta (Biscay) Urkullu and his successor in an act of tribute to the founder of the PNB, Sabino Arana, and the still lehendakari wished him “the best” and offered him his help. Pradales said that it was an “honour” that Euskadi Buru Butzar (EBB) – the executive of the PNB – proposed it and that he expects the endorsement of militancy. The change of witness, however, has not been so peaceful and the president of the party, Andoni Ortuzar, regretted that it had been leaked to the newspaper on Friday The mail that the formation had decided to dispense with Urkullu. In his speech, he asked for “unity”, at a time when the PNB is suffering from the rise of EH Bildu in the last electoral contests – it only surpassed him by 9,000 votes in the general elections – and in the polls.
The two parties in the sovereignist orbit are the ones that are initially playing for first place in an election for which there is still no date. In 2020 they were on July 12 and it remains to be seen what role the fact that there will also be European elections on June 9, 2024 plays. Since 2009, Euskadi and Galicia have voted at the same time, but the Galician president, Alfonso Rueda, weigh in advancing them.
2023-11-27 11:16:01
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