In view of the July 23 elections, the PNV wants to accentuate the role it has traditionally played in Madrid, as a 'conqueror' who watches over 'the interests of the Basques'. It will base the electoral pre-campaign and the campaign itself on that point, and it has already begun to set a profile. The PNV spokesman in Congress and number one for Bizkaia in the formation, Aitor Esteban, participated in a press conference on Tuesday to question the "absolute lack of sensitivity" towards the Basque Country of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez.
The jeltzales will insist on that level of demand in the coming weeks and will try to focus the campaign on that section. The party's president, Andoni Ortuzar, summed it up eloquently this weekend: "July 23 is not about who sits in Moncloa, but about who best defends the Basques."
In other words, the jeltzales want the Basque electoral campaign for the generals, which obviously has other peculiarities, to revolve around the defense of Basque interests in Madrid. The objective is, on the one hand, to avoid a leak of "useful votes" towards the options with the possibility of governing in Madrid, especially towards the PSOE, while mobilizing their electorate, their great challenge.
On the other, those from Ortuzar seek to focus their struggle with EH Bildu in this section, an area in which the Abertzale coalition has begun to rival the Jeltzales, but in which it is a newcomer force in contrast to decades of political play. of the PNV in Madrid.
The press conference of the PNV spokesman in Congress, Aitor Esteban, this Tuesday has been expressive of this will of the Basque nationalists. The number one of the jeltzales for Bizkaia has focused his speech precisely on defending the position of the Basque Country in terms of European funds, and there he has been very critical of the central government.
Esteban has denounced that Euskadi is going to receive "zero euros" of the more than 700 million euros of the European Funds that will be allocated in Spain to tunnel works and to reduce noise on the roads.
"It cannot be. We are European citizens and that money will have to be for everyone, no matter how much it has to go through the State," he said.
The PNV spokesman has insisted that the management of the European Funds by the Spanish Government is "very slow", with an "infinite bureaucracy", and has considered that the Executive does not have the "capacity" to manage these funds.
As indicated, of the more than 6,000 million euros approved for the Basque Country, "barely" 1,000 million have been received and some 500 have reached the companies.
Esteban has highlighted that "the last straw" in this matter is that, of the 343 million euros that will be allocated in the State for tunnels in high-capacity road networks, "zero euros" have arrived in the Basque Country, and that " it seems" that the same is going to happen with more than 400 million that will be dedicated to actions against noise on the roads.
Esteban added that the PERTE for languages, endowed with a total of 1,200 million euros in Spain, only dedicates 2 million euros to Basque.
In his opinion, it denotes an "absolute lack of sensitivity of the State" with Euskadi, which is added to the "disastrous management" of the European Funds.
