“Imanol, be yourself.”
This was the advice that Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu gave to the PNV candidate to succeed him in office.
The latest poll prepared by the Basque Government, released last Friday, predicts a tie in seats between his party and EH Bildu.
In that case, the Basque socialists would have the key to governability in the Basque Country.
Imanol Pradales (Santurtzi, Bizkaia, 48 years old) is in favor of repeating the coalition with the PSE-EE because he distrusts the “tacticism and lack of seriousness” that he observes in the nationalist left
during
the electoral pre-campaign.
“I defend expanding and strengthening self-government;
"There are others who have turned to our positions," he says, referring to the independentists.
Everything indicates that the Basque elections will be held on April 21, the day Pradales will turn 49 years old.
Ask.
We are on the verge of the most close elections in history.
His party, the PNV, has shown signs of wear and tear or weakness in recent meetings.
Do you fear the loss of that leadership?
Answer.
In the municipal and regional elections [of 2023] the PNV won.
We arrive at these with renewed strength and with the desire to explain to society that we have a new project that will allow us to take this country to greater levels of well-being and self-government.
Q.
The PNV won, but the advantage over EH Bildu is getting smaller and smaller.
On 23-J he was 1,100 votes away from reaching a PNV that lost more than 103,000 votes.
Is your party's hegemony in danger?
A.
We took what happened as a wake-up call.
That is why today we are offering a renewed project, with different people and a commitment to a Euskadi of well-being, reliable and global.
Q.
Is the PNV paying the bill to accommodate itself after so many years in power?
A.
Changes have occurred in Europe and many parties that led their countries have lost government.
The global scenario also affects us.
Governing a country involves certain wear and tear.
However, the Basque Government approves with flying colors, according to all the indicators that assess its management.
Q.
What is the brand that distinguishes the PNV from other formations?
A.
For more than four decades we have been committed to building a country based on self-government and the Statute of Gernika.
Our model has always linked well-being to self-government.
In these elections we are going to choose between the model that has brought well-being to Euskadi and the EH Bildu model that we do not know yet and is yet to be defined.
Q.
Are they antagonistic models or could they coexist, beyond specific agreements between the PNV and EH Bildu?
A.
They are very different proposals.
It alarms me that interventionism is proposed in economic and industrial policy.
This week, members of Sortu squatted two tourist homes in San Sebastián.
It seems that they propose a housing policy based on squatting.
And in the political sphere, a ciaboga is observed in those who now use terms such as 'more and better self-government', which until recently were not in the vocabulary of EH Bildu.
Q.
Is EH Bildu assuming the language of the PNV?
A.
We have a history and we have always expressed our message without filters or half measures.
We defend that more self-government is synonymous with more well-being.
There are others who have turned and are approaching us.
Q.
Is the model proposed by EH Bildu not reliable?
A.
The PNV has shown that it is a trustworthy party.
When we make a decision, we carry it out.
They are the ones who are moving towards the path that the PNV has traced over the last 40 years.
The new candidate of the PNV for the regional elections, Imanol Pradales, at Sabin Etxea, headquarters of the PNV in Bilbao.Javier Hernandez Juantegui
Q.
Polls say that the favorite coalition of the Basques is a PNV-EH Bildu pact.
This is possible?
A.
The surveys give a division of opinions.
There are those who are betting on a Government like the current one, between the PNV and the PSE-EE;
others prefer a left-wing tripartite;
and also, those who support a governance agreement between the PNV and EH Bildu.
Talking now about pacts is hasty and is due to tactics.
Q.
But citizens deserve to know what their preferences are regarding government pacts, because no party is going to achieve an absolute majority.
A.
We have governed with other political forces, we are used to it and it is good that it is so.
Let us not lose sight of the fact that there is currently a political agreement between the PNV and the PSE-EE to govern the municipal and regional institutions.
I feel comfortable with this coalition.
Q.
The PNV has shown political waist to agree with other political options.
Could it be done with EH Bildu?
R.
EH Bildu has just supported the climate change law in the Basque Parliament.
He was about to support the education law, but backed out at the last minute for reasons I still don't understand.
The agreement would be possible, but with clear why and why.
Q.
The EH Bildu candidate, Pello Otxandiano, has thrown a gauntlet at you by asking you if you are willing to let the list with the most votes govern.
Do they see themselves as winners?
A.
We are in the moment of political and electoral tactics.
If we apply that theory, in Spain Feijóo would be governing, the president of Navarra would be [José Javier] Esparza (UPN), and the mayor of Pamplona would be [Cristina] Ibarrola (also from UPN).
Or in Bermeo (Bizkaia) the PNV would govern and not Bildu.
In this issue I see tactics and lack of seriousness.
I feel comfortable with the coalition between the PNV and the PSE-EE
Imanol Pradales, PNV candidate for lehendakari
Q.
Do you see a populist touch in that EH Bildu proposal?
You warned of the danger of left-wing and right-wing populism in your presentation.
A.
I hear unserious political statements that cause me alarm.
I am referring to those who promise total free and imply that public resources are infinite.
We forget the values that have brought us where we are: work, effort, the culture of collaboration... Governing is prioritizing.
Q.
Is Imanol Pradales continuity, a rejuvenated Urkullu?
R.
Imanol Pradales is the renewal in the PNV.
The party has made a profound renewal of people and I am the one who is leading a new team.
Q.
You take over from Urkullu, whom you have defined as “a reference.”
Urkullu has championed agreement and consensus in his political actions.
Are you going to continue down the same path?
A.
Without a doubt.
We are in an important political moment because the political geometry in the State is what it is.
I aspire to improve the current self-government and strengthen it.
This requires, first of all, full compliance with the Statute of Gernika, as stated in the PSOE-PNV agreement for Sánchez's investiture, which sets this commitment within a period of two years.
In addition, four elements are agreed upon to strengthen self-government: the national recognition of Euskadi, the updating of historical rights, a system of guarantees and finally giving the Basques the decision-making capacity.
Q.
In what terms should it be done?
A.
It will depend on the political will of the parties.
For our part, the will to dialogue, negotiate and agree will be maximum.
It is good that the new statute allows us to broaden the consensus that existed in 1979, when the pro-independence left and the Popular Alliance, today the PP, were left out.
I am an independentista with my feet on the ground
Q.
Is it appropriate to talk about independence now?
The latest sociological studies do not consider this aspiration among the priorities of the Basques, not even among PNV voters.
A.
I feel pro-independence, but I have my feet on the ground.
I know perfectly well what Basque society is like and I believe that the path of self-government is the path that we have to continue traveling. We cannot ignore that self-government has brought higher levels of well-being, it has allowed us to create Osakidetza, the Ertzaintza, an educational system and develop our own economic, industrial, social protection policies...
Q.
Do you rule out disruptive approaches or a
Basque-style
process ?
A.
That is not the model for Euskadi.
Q.
Do you see Sánchez's legislature in danger?
How do you analyze the political situation in the country?
A.
It is a legislature of uncertainty, because the parties that support the investiture are diverse and varied.
As Urkullu said, "he needs everyone all the time." When any of the parties that supported the investiture hesitate or separate from that bloc, political uncertainty increases.
I want to trust that we can search for those agreements and those balances, because I think we have to give the legislature time.
We are not going to favor political instability.
We have shown that we are a serious and reliable party.
But it does not only depend on the will of the PNV.
We have to give the [Sanchez] legislature time.
The PNV will not favor political instability
Q.
Will the amnesty law go ahead despite the resistance from sectors of the justice system?
A.
The amnesty law is still a political response to something that never had to leave the political sphere and that nevertheless ended with the judicialization of the so-called
process
.
When a conflict with political roots is judicialized, we must try by all means to return that conflict to politics, because politics is where it should be addressed.
Unfortunately, that did not happen.
What the amnesty law aims to do is rebalance that balance.
I trust that there is an agreement between the Catalan parties and the Spanish Government and that the problem will be redirected.
That implies that they are going to have to continue talking and they are going to have to continue negotiating.
The PNV will be there to support this agreement.
Imanol Pradales, at one point in the interview.Javier Hernandez Juantegui
Q.
What do you think about wanting to implicate Puigdemont in a crime of terrorism?
A.
There is a part of the judiciary that does not want to provide a political solution to the conflict in Catalonia and opts for continuous
judicialization
.
That is bad for everyone and does not help coexistence.
Political problems should be debated in the political sphere, not in the judicial sphere.
It seems very dangerous to me to play with these issues in the conflict in Catalonia.
Unfortunately, in Euskadi we have experienced the drama of terrorism and we should not play with it, because one knows how it starts but not how it ends.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I am already a subscriber
_