Otegi's candidate for lehendakari guarantees the Basque PSOE his support if he wins the elections but demands reciprocity

Josean Izarra Vitoria

Victoria

Updated Wednesday, January 24, 2024-09:34

EH Bildu aspires to "lead" the Basque Government starting next spring and puts pressure on the Basque PSOE to expand its pacts in Navarra in Euskadi.

Its candidate Pello Otxandiano is willing to make it easier for Eneko Andueza to be lehendakari if he wins the elections but demands reciprocity: "Bildu should lead the Government if he wins the elections," he has claimed when pre-election polls point to a close result between PNV and the nationalist coalition .

Otxandiano puts pressure on the Basque PSOE and agrees with the socialists that "the script has changed" (first slogan of Eneko Andueza's pre-campaign).

Aware that the PNV will prioritize its pact with the PSE for another four years, Otxandiano maintains that the "collaboration space" tested in Navarra and Pamplona should also be used in Euskadi as a symptom of "normalization."

"It is a good premise that the force with the most votes governs," claims Otxandiano about the policy of pacts that will be one of the central axes of the campaign because no party has the option of reaching the 38 parliamentarians that guarantees the absolute majority in Euskadi.

Today on Radio Euskadi, Otxandiano has disgraced the Basque socialists that the PSOE or even Pedro Sánchez are "more Basque" than them with a quote attributed to Jesús Eguiguren.

Otxandiano interprets that there is a "democratic mandate" to "exclude the reactionary right" referring to the PP and includes the PNV as one of the "progressive forces" that would be within the "new equation" that Bildu intends to apply in Euskadi.

"The PSE has to adapt to the new situation," claims the EH Bildu candidate who emerged as a proposal from the leadership headed by Otegi and obtained the acclaim of his bases without any other candidate.

Bildu, in fact, negotiates its support for the budgets of the Vitoria City Council governed by the socialist Maider Etxebarria.

An almost closed pact in which the Abertzale coalition would guarantee the first accounts of the legislature to Etxebarria, which was invested thanks to the votes of PNV and PP to avoid the appointment of Rocío Vitero (EH Bildu) who won the elections in May 2023 .

Otxandiano (Otxandio, 1983) has recognized that his generation has received a "inheritance" but while "ETA has assumed all its political responsibility" he considers and demands that "others responsible for State violence and torture" have not done so.

Doctor in Engineering, Otxandiano is part of Sortu - the party created by the nationalist left after the outlawing of Herri Batasuna (HB) - and which represents the commitment to generational renewal led by Arnaldo Otegi and the former leaders of HB.