Once the PSOE-Junts investiture agreement has been sealed, this time, all eyes are focused on the PNV, the missing piece to fit into the investiture puzzle. The Jeltzales maintain discretion about the agreement, although sources familiar with the negotiation are optimistic and see a handshake between the two parties as close. The negotiation would have to go awry so that the pact is not closed between this afternoon and tomorrow, these sources point out.
The socialists left the negotiation with the PNV for last, a partner that demands deference and preferential treatment. This agreement, however, is not being prepared at the speed that the PSOE negotiators expected, and the votes of the PNV are essential for there to be investiture in the first vote. In the second vote, their abstention would be enough, a formula that the Jeltzales say they do not rule out.
The PNV wants to play its cards well and tie an agreement with guarantees of compliance, unless it reaches the entire legislature and not just the investiture. They are very critical of the treatment that the Socialists gave them during the last term and in the face of the legislature that is opening up, they are looking for an agreement that, on the eve of elections to the Basque Parliament, will position them before their electorate with significant achievements and, especially, guarantees that commitments will be fulfilled. It is about recovering its historical role as an achiever who defends the interests of the Basques in Madrid, something that EH Bildu has sought to discuss with them in recent years, although with a more social accent.
The PNV spokesperson in Congress, Aitor Esteban, is carrying the weight of the negotiation, in direct contact with the president of the party, Andoni Ortuzar, and the members of the Executive Joseba Aurrekoetxea and Koldo Mediavilla.
Esteban has focused, as is known, on full compliance with the Statute of Gernika, although with the addition that he is seeking guarantees that this commitment will not fall on deaf ears on this occasion. Among the powers included in the Statute that would change hands is the management of the Social Security economic regime, the most compromised point of the negotiation and which, in any case, appears in article 18 of the statutory agreement.
This full compliance with the self-government approved in 1979 was included four years ago in the 12-point agreement that PNV and PSOE sealed for the previous inauguration of Pedro Sánchez; However, of the thirty transfers that were agreed upon, only five arrived. The schedule that they made public soon became a dead letter, despite repeated pressure from Basque nationalists.
Demanded by the Basque pre-electoral context and the strength that EH Bildu has shown in the last elections, the PNV cannot allow itself on this occasion for the agreements that it will present in the next few hours to remain in the drawer, hence the importance of guarantees.
Aitor Esteban has also been negotiating “Basque national recognition”, a section in which the PNV has sought coordination with Junts.
Four years ago this historic demand was channeled through point four of the investiture agreement with the PSOE, which required hours of negotiation and somewhat ambiguous wording.
“Promote, through dialogue between parties and institutions, the necessary reforms to adapt the structure of the State to the recognition of territorial identities, agreeing, where appropriate, on the necessary legal modifications, in order to find a solution to both the Catalan dispute as in the negotiation and agreement of the new Statute of the CAV, taking into account national feelings of belonging," they agreed at that point.
It remains to be seen how it is resolved this time and what kind of performance guarantees are agreed upon.
Thirdly, the PNV seeks to introduce into the agreement certain investments in infrastructure under the responsibility of the central government, especially with regard to the arrival of high speed to Euskadi.
The final agreement, in any case, is still a mystery and sources familiar with the negotiation indicate that there will be surprises.
