The president of UPN, Javier Esparza, at a press conference at the UPN headquarters, this Monday. Iñaki Porto (EFE)
The president of UPN, Javier Esparza, has announced at a press conference that the Executive of the regionalist formation has unanimously approved this Monday, proposing to the Political Council to attend the next municipal and regional elections in 2023 alone. According to the Navarrese leader , the decision has been made because "the polls say" that this time they add "more support going separately than together."
If the initiative is ratified in the Political Council, which will be held this Saturday, the Navarra Suma coalition, —made up of UPN, PP and Cs—, will not be reissued.
Esparza was accompanied at the press conference, at the party headquarters in Pamplona, by members of the executive, including the mayor of the city of Pamplona and vice president of UPN, Enrique Maya, and former president Miguel Sanz.
During his address, the president of UPN has maintained that going alone "gives more social support, more alternatives and options to govern Navarra and that EH Bildu does not decide anything."
UPN ran for the May 26, 2019 elections under the Navarra Suma brand.
In the regional elections it emerged as the most voted force with 36.52% of the votes and a total of 19 seats.
The regional Parliament is governed, however, by the PSOE (11 seats), thanks to the support of 9 from Geroa Bai, 2 from Podemos and 1 from Izquierda-Ezkerra, and the abstention of 7 from EH Bildu.
“The surveys that we have tell us that this time we add more support by going separately than by going together;
and they tell us, therefore, that going separately is what gives us the most options to achieve our goal, which is to return to leading Navarra and that EH Bildu does not rule on this earth, that he does not decide, that he does not make decisions and that he does not score the future of the people of Navarre", Esparza underlined during his speech, in which he took the opportunity to ask for the vote of PSOE supporters.
A strategy also marked in the Popular Party of Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
“Going alone allows us to facilitate the vote for thousands of moderate socialist sympathizers who do not want any more adventures with the Basque independence movement, who do not want agreements with EH Bildu,
In any case, the PP had already decided to break the Navarra coalition, as announced by the popular in August.
Esparza has also made the Popular Party ugly, having found out about the decision through the media.
“At that time, the PP argued that the justification had to do with the fact that its acronyms had to be found on the ballots, something that is still maintained today, and also said that it was going to unite the center right in Navarra, when of all It is known that the center right in Navarra is united around UPN”, he indicated.
Feijóo precisely visited Pamplona on December 4 to attend the regional Congress of the PP of Navarra, in which Javier García Jiménez was confirmed as regional president.
The popular baron had to negotiate with UPN whether or not to attend jointly.
Esparza has asserted, on the other hand, that Ciudadanos "is going through a tremendously difficult moment and everything indicates that it will not be able to recover the strength it had at the time", referring to the process of refounding Cs and its disastrous results. electoral.
As a climax to his argument, Esparza has ruled that UPN "makes its own decisions, without anyone setting the times or pointing the way" and always "thinking of the best for Navarra."