Pello Otxandiano, a member of the EH Bildu party, has made the approval of a new political status for the Basque Country a priority in the roadmap for the new legislative term that has begun in the Parliament. He stressed that now is the time to address the debate on updating the region’s self-government, as the Basque Parliament has a “unprecedented sovereign majority” following the regional elections held on April 21st. Otxandiano argued that the current Statute of Autonomy, which dates back almost half a century and was established during the transition period, has been unilaterally violated by the State.
In his debut as a parliamentarian, Otxandiano presented his candidacy for lehendakari, although he will not be elected as he will only receive the support of the 27 EH Bildu representatives. The Parliament will vote in the afternoon of the same day to invest the candidate from the PNV, Imanol Pradales, as lehendakari, who will receive the 27 votes from his political group and the 12 from the PSE-EE following the programmatic agreement reached this week to renew their coalition government.
Otxandiano emphasized the need for the Basque institutions to achieve sovereignty in order to address cultural and social challenges. He called on the new Basque Government to make the updating of self-government and national and social rights an essential and central part of its political management. He accused the State of “mutilating and devaluing” the Gernika Statute of 1979, and previous Basque Governments of subjecting its compliance to “political bargaining”.
The erosion of the current statutory framework, as stated by Otxandiano, should lead to a process of updating and approval of “a new legal-political framework” for the Basque Country once and for all. He stressed that the sovereign left is ready to address this debate responsibly, generously, and with a broad perspective during the current legislative term. He recalled that EH Bildu and the PNV had reached a preliminary agreement in 2018 in the Parliament’s commission on self-government to process a statutory reform, but this attempt failed due to pressure from the socialists.
The new political status will once again be a central issue in the XIII legislature. The government program agreed upon by the PNV and PSE-EE once again sets aside the reform of the Statute from the agreements that commit both parties. Like in previous agreements, the 125-page government program includes this issue as a “disagreement” that has been settled.
