The Basque pre-campaign, even the campaign itself, was focused on the Basque agenda, on issues such as housing or the situation of the Basque Health System, until this Monday, at the beginning of the decisive week, the question of ETA's violence, the issue of condemnation of terrorism and, in this case, the lukewarmness that they reproach EH Bildu for in this section. The PSE candidate, Eneko Andueza, has taken the lead in this matter, which he has tried to install in the campaign since the first week and which, now, it seems that he will focus the final sprint before Sunday's elections.
“ETA was a terrorist group and Mr. Otxandiano (EH Bildu) shows that he is an absolute coward. The only possibility that these people do not reach the government is the PSE,” Andueza denounced this morning, in an interview on the Ser channel.
His words come precisely from an interview with the EH Bildu candidate on the same station and only a few hours before. There, Otxandiano avoided talking about “terrorist group” when referring to ETA and used the term “armed group.”
“What is terrorism today? Is what Israel is doing against Palestine terrorism? We can discuss the considerations around terrorism, what is terrorism and what is not terrorism. But much further, it seems to me that the issue is diagnosing in political terms how political conflicts are overcome and I believe that in this country we have made a lot of progress,” he said.
The leader of EH Bildu wanted to “highlight the contribution that the pro-independence left has made to removing ETA's violence from the Basque political equation.” “There are people in EH Bildu who have paid with more than six and a half years in prison for their efforts to deactivate ETA's violence. And when those people were imprisoned they were classified as terrorists. After spending six and a half years in prison, they were acquitted, and there are people in the Spanish State who consider them terrorists. I think we have to overcome this debate and I think Basque society is far ahead. “We are in another political cycle,” he noted.
Otxandiano's response has received harsh reproach from Andueza and it seems that the issue will be talked about in tonight's debate on ETB. A week ago, in the TVE debate, Andueza himself asked Nerea Kortajarena, who represented EH Bildu, to condemn ETA's terrorism, and in the ETB1 debate, entirely in Basque, Andueza insisted on this issue, looking at Otxandiano and in similar terms.
The commitment of the socialists on this issue seems to have more to do with the post-electoral pacts than with the electoral competition with EH Bildu, very strong in the polls. Vote transfers from the PSE to EH Bildu, taking the 2020 Basque Parliament elections as a reference, are non-existent and only some transfers are recorded in response to the 2023 general elections. 12% of those who then voted for the PSE would now opt for EH Bildu; However, it gives the impression that it was more of a traditional vote for the Abertzale coalition which, specifically, from the perspective of the useful vote, was able to opt for the socialists so that the right would not govern in Spain.
Considering the post-electoral pacts, however, the socialists are forced to justify to their electorate their decision not to reach an agreement with EH Bildu and to look to the PNV. In fact, Andueza's main arguments to justify that they will not agree with EH Bildu are basically two: the lukewarmness that they denounce in their position with respect to ETA and their position regarding the territorial issue (the PSE has been insisting that EH Bildu " Just think about independence.
The question is whether this willingness to portray the nationalist coalition with respect to its position in relation to terrorism can turn against the PSOE, which has one of its main allies in Congress in EH Bildu.
