The leader of the PSE-EE Eneko Andueza presented his credentials as a candidate for Lehendakaritza in the Basque Parliament today. And he has done so by attacking Urkullu’s proposal for a “constitutional convention.” Andueza’s argument compares the Lehendakari’s initiative with the Estella pact or the Ibarretxe plan, the last two failed sovereigntist initiatives. “We need institutions that collaborate in solving problems, that are focused on what truly matters,” he warned in an intervention with an electoral flavor.
Eneko Andueza had already questioned the “constitutional convention” recovered by Urkullu in the midst of the debate on the territorial model with the pressure exerted by the Catalan and Basque independence parties. But within the framework of the last general policy plenary session of the legislature, the leader of the PSE-EE has raised the tone by linking this proposal with the Estella pact. Andueza has urged Urkullu “not to waste his energy in searching for an updated term to surround the Constitution and end up configuring an unprecedented confederal State.”
Urkullu’s partner in the Basque Government and in the three Basque institutions has accused him of trying to “reinterpret” the Constitution and has ruled out the “confederal model” proposed by the Lehendakari’s initiative. Furthermore, Andueza has directly attacked the PNV’s speech about the “erosion” of self-government that is repeated by all nationalist institutional representatives.
Andueza has described these complaints as “decoys” and flatly rejected nationalist victimhood on this issue. “It is not rigorous to speak of an eroded self-government, a victim of centralism that is only in its imagination, in view of what we already manage, what we already decide, and the powers we have,” he stated.
He has also pointed out to the PNV together with EH Bildu for having prevented the updating of the Gernika Statute. The two nationalist parties agreed on the “bases and principles” of a sovereign statute that remains frozen although today Urkullu has tried to give it air in the final months of the legislature that ends in June 2024.
Furthermore, the leader of the socialists has taken advantage of his intervention to discredit the PNV for its negative vote on the Labor Reform and the Housing Law approved by the Government of Pedro Sánchez. He has even gone a step further to directly warn the Lehendakari not to put obstacles in the way of the implementation of state housing regulations. “I hope that the application of measures is not hindered, such as the declaration of tense areas, as some council has already requested. Otherwise, the error, Lehendakari, will be double,” he stated.