Last Sunday in Spain, April 21, the Basque Country went to the polls and the Basque nationalist Party, the PNV, that is to say the regionalist center right, was closely followed by Bildu, the autonomist independence party. Deciphering these regional elections with Juan Jose Dorado, Spanish correspondent journalist in Paris.
franceinfo: This independence party, Bildu, is very close to ETA?
Juan Jose Dorado: Yes, this is what we have always called the political arm of ETA, moreover Mr. Otegi, who is the supreme leader of Bildu, was convicted of terrorism, so there is a direct link between Bildu today ‘today, and ETA.
And indeed, Bildu, has followed the PNV to such an extent that today, after these elections, they have the same number of deputies in the Basque Parliament, that is to say 27 each, and that will be the third force political, the Socialist Party of the Basque Country has decided who will govern the country, the Socialist Party which had 12 deputies, the Socialist Party which, in any case, has said that it will support the government to a new government of the Nationalist Party Basque.
So the socialists are going to help the Basque Nationalist Party, shall we say the center right?
Since the Socialist Party will therefore support a government of the Basque Nationalist Party which, in turn, supports the government. However, be careful, the Spanish Socialist Prime Minister, Mr. Pedro Sanchez, announced last Wednesday that he was considering a resignation. For what ? After the opening of an investigation against his wife for influence peddling and corruption, and according to him, it is a set-up by the right-wing opposition. He said : “I need to stop and think.”. Think about what? Whether he remains at the head of government or not. Answer next Monday, April 29, in a press conference. For now, he has retired from business. So we’ll wait. That means a government that will try to survive.
And Bildu, the Basque far left?
Bildu also supports the government in Madrid, so that the right does not actually arrive on the side of the Basque Country. In any case, it is true that today you have, for the first time in the democratic history of Spain, a Basque Parliament, which is essentially regionalist, nationalist, pro-independence. Since 54 deputies are today, facing the 12 deputies of the socialist party, facing the 7 deputies of the popular party, conservative, and facing 1 deputy of Sumar, the former Podemos, the extreme left, but it still remains an MP from the extreme right since Vox saved his MP.
But what is interesting is that even if this parliament today is an essentially nationalist and pro-independence parliament, pro-independence sentiment in the Basque Country has diminished in recent years…
It’s rather regionalist, so…
Regionalist, it is the Basque Nationalist Party, but Bildu has always been an independence party. But the reality is that today, even if we recognize that Basque independence is not a popular theme in the elections, and that barely 20% of Basque voters declare themselves supporters of ‘independence.
What is important in Spain, precisely in relation to these autonomous regions, is that on February 18, it was Galicia which went to the elections. And so it was the classic right of the Popular Party which won. We must not forget that the Spanish national leader of the PP, therefore the Popular Party, the right, is a Galician, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
And very soon, on May 12, Catalonia will vote. So three elections, Galicia, Basque Country, Catalonia, and behind them, the European elections which are all the same?
And if I told you that in the Basque Country, it is “I hold you, you hold me by the goatee”in Catalonia in a few weeks, on May 12, it will be exactly the same thing, since the city of Barcelona is governed by the socialists, but the government of Catalonia is in the hands of the separatists, who support the government in Madrid.
So this is really the issue that we experienced in the Basque Country, we are going to see it again in Catalonia and all that, with the European elections. But with these last three elections, Galicia, Basque Country, Catalonia, the electoral campaign for the European elections, for the moment, it is really falling by the wayside.