"A few days ago I closed my eyes and saw the future; we won, we won, we won", Arnaldo Otegi dramatized from the steps of Bilbao City Hall and before thousands of supporters with flags from Euskadi and Navarra.

Otegi has not reached the "dream" immortalized by Martin Luther King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963, but the wink has allowed his followers to applaud and smile at the formal start of a long pre-campaign.

Otegi wants to "win" the PNV at the polls with his "popular army" and "throw out the Civil Guard patrol boat" from the waters of

Ondarroa in 2023

.

EH Bildu intends to generate a "wave" that will become its electoral slogan before the May (municipal and regional in Navarra) and winter (general) appointments at the polls.

The abertzale coalition had pampered the demonstration that toured the streets of Bilbao this afternoon, which was headed by Otegi together with the candidates for the city councils of the Basque capitals, the councils and institutional representatives such as the spokesperson in Congress Mertxe Aizpurua.

The march lasting more than an hour through the center of Bilbao ended on the steps of the City Hall and in front of the Ría - a very different scenario from the 'National Mall' - but which has allowed Otegi to attack Núñez Feijóo, José Luis Martínez-Almeida and even Iñigo Urkullu while citing

Rosa de Luxemburg, Pepe Mújica, Fidel Castro and Groucho Marx

.

The long thirty minutes of the nationalist leader have allowed him to justify why after decades of refusing to participate in the Spanish Courts, EH Bildu is now part of the parliamentary majority that supports the Government of Pedro Sánchez.

On this occasion he has avoided being honest as he did on October 18, 2021 in Eibar by explaining that his priority is to get all ETA members out of jail even though, as EH Bildu will do in a few weeks, he has to support Pedro Sánchez's budgets.

The rally argument exposed at the head of the abertzale "wave" has been based on dividing Congress in two between the "combatants of fascism" and those who "claim the criminal dictatorship."

Underlining the "anti-fascist" character of EH Bildu, Otegi has demanded "honesty" from the Spanish political parties.

Using a few words by Pepe Mújica and presumably addressing the PSOE without expressly citing him, he has accused him of "being willing to use all legal and illegal violence to maintain the unity of Spain."

The leader of EH Bildu has wanted to highlight his null political and personal harmony with Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu ("he's not my type either", he joked) to distance himself from the PNV and get closer to Podemos voters in Euskadi.

Because Otegi intends to exceed the electoral expectations of the EH Bildu sovereign coalition by presenting itself as a "people's movement" with the values ​​of the left, feminism, anti-capitalism and internationalism.

"We are the block of hope for this country," Otegi has promised, transferring the leading role to his faithful and announcing a mass communication next Saturday and a special Aberri Eguna on Easter Sunday in 2023. By then, he assumes that all ETA prisoners and exiles will be in Euskadi and Navarra and will manage to "throw the Civil Guard patrol boat out of the waters of Ondarroa.

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