On the threshold of the elections in Euskadi next Sunday, and before attending the closing of the Basque socialists' campaign in Bilbao this Friday, Pedro Sánchez has considered the apologies of the EH Bildu candidate, Pello Otxandiano, who in In any case, it still does not recognize that ETA was a terrorist organization. “You have to call things by their name,” the President of the Government warned from Brussels, at the end of the extraordinary meeting of the European Council. “ETA was not an armed gang,” Sánchez amended to the candidate for lehendakari of the Abertzale left. “Nor was it a national liberation movement, as Aznar said at the time,” he added.
“ETA was a terrorist band, which was defeated by Spanish democracy,” Sánchez stressed. “ETA has not existed for more than ten years,” he highlighted, to regret that so long later Bildu's electoral candidate still does not recognize his terrorist activity.
The terrorist group, Sánchez insisted, “was fortunately defeated by democracy thanks to the unity of all the political forces, of the whole of Basque society and of Spanish society.” But, in the midst of the electoral context in Euskadi, the head of the Executive has once again highlighted the role that three socialist leaders played in the end of ETA: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as President of the Government, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba as Minister of the Interior and Patxi López as lehendakari. “That is what the Socialist Party has also contributed to do for the consolidation of freedoms and democracy in Euskadi and Spain,” he highlighted.
“You have to call things by their name,” Sánchez insisted from Brussels. “ETA is not an armed organization, nor is it the national liberation movement that Aznar said. It was a terrorist band, which was defeated by Spanish democracy thanks to the unity of all democrats,” he reiterated.
Despite these criticisms of the nationalist left candidate in Euskadi, Sánchez has defended that his Government obtain the essential parliamentary support of EH Bildu to keep the legislature afloat and thus be able to approve laws and initiatives that, he has highlighted, benefit the social majority. in Spain. “To approve the revaluation of pensions in accordance with the CPI, the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage or free public transportation, we are certainly going to talk to all political parties,” he justified.
The president recalled that the coalition government between the PSOE and Sumar is in a parliamentary minority. “And we spoke with all groups, except with Vox, to agree on measures that benefit the social majority of the country. With that everything is said,” he concluded.
Sánchez has assured that the socialists “are going out to win the elections” in Euskadi this Sunday, with the willingness in any case to “continue guaranteeing a government” together with the PNV, and the objective of promoting “coexistence, stability and progressive policies that guarantee the prosperity of Euskadi.”
