JOSEAN IZARRA Durango

Durango

Updated Saturday, January 27, 2024-13:26

Imanol Pradales (Santurtzi, 1975) has received the unanimous support of the PNV in the official presentation of his controversial candidacy for 'lehendakari' to replace Iñigo Urkullu. Pradales has attacked "populism", the label that the PNV is going to use against EH Bildu in an intense and unpredictable electoral campaign. A scenario so open that Andoni Ortuzar, the leader of the PNV, wanted to counteract the doubts of his own militancy: "We are going to win the elections; another thing is by how much," Ortuzar has encouraged his faithful.

Imanol Pradales will turn 49 on April 21 - the 'unofficial' date of the Basque elections - but for the PNV he is a "young candidate" who has started the electoral race today under the motto 'Indar Berria' translated as 'Renewed Forces' ' in Spanish. A slogan that tries to counteract, already at the beginning of the campaign, the alleged electoral 'strength' of EH Bildu, its rival, and that underlines the process of renewal in its leadership that has caused the non-continuity of the 'lehendakari' Iñigo Urkullu.

The official presentation of Pradales took place after a general assembly in which the PNV has also rejuvenated its electoral boards with the surprise that it will be the very young Joseba Díez who will lead the candidacy for Álava, the Historical Territory where each seat requires a smaller number of votes compared to those of Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa. And also the designation of Ohiane Agirregoitia as head of the list for the European Parliament in the June 9 elections.

New faces that, for the moment, are behind the leadership of Andoni Ortuzar, today the "opening act" for the candidates. "They want us," Ortuzar warned, referring to alleged enemies "here and in Madrid." With that touch of political victimhood used as a sting to stimulate his militants, Ortuzar has defended "evolution" and supported the accusation of populism of those who "promote instability" in Euskadi. Neither Ortuzar nor the rest of the nationalist spokespersons have made explicit mention of EH Bidu, the 'elephant in the room' at the event held in a packed Landako Gunea in Durango.

Pradales, dressed in a suit but without a tie in his first speech as a candidate for lehendakari, has warned of "left-wing and right-wing populism" because both "feed off each other in the dangerous game of polarization." The candidate for 'lehendakari' has confirmed his political and personal harmony with Iñigo Urkullu, the current lehendakari who now has the ability to determine when the elections will be held in the Basque Country.

Pradales has committed to "renewing the social contract that has brought us here" in that complex process in which the party that has governed Euskadi almost uninterruptedly since 1980 aspires to continue leading the Basque Government for another four years. "I rebel against the doomsayers," stated Pradales after spokespersons such as Ortuzar and Urkullu himself have denounced EH Bildu's strategy of promoting social protests with particularly sensitive problems such as health services.

"Improving public health in the Basque Country will be my top priority," highlighted Pradales, who has defended the "creation of wealth and quality employment" as the basis of well-being, the banner with which the PNV and now also the nationalist left defend the "self-government."

The new PNV candidate for 'lehendakari' has defended his origins from a family from Burgos, who lived on the Left Bank and suffered the consequences of the crises. "Ama took care of us and scrubbed stairs to get four grades; they [her parents] gave them a hard time," acknowledged Pradales, the 'renewed' face of the PNV who has committed to "continue building the Basque Nation" and "that Euskadi be the master of her own destiny."