The EH Bildu coalition, which aspires to surpass the PNV as the leading force in Euskadi, to win in Gipuzkoa or to regain the mayoralty of Pamplona, has made an extraordinary appearance -without the possibility of questions- at its headquarters in Donostia after the announcement that the seven candidates who were on their lists and who had been convicted of blood crimes for their past as ETA terrorists will resign from office if they are elected in the municipal and regional elections of Álava, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Navarra. He hopes that with this “significant and unequivocal gesture” the debate will be settled and that the electoral campaign will deflate and return to the path by which they intend to take it, that is, to debate Health, Education or care.
Former Socialist Minister Gemma Zabaleta is already campaigning for EH Bildu in Gipuzkoa
Further
Arnaldo Otegi has read a statement from the political table of EH Bildu, the coalition formed not only by Sortu but also by EA, Alternatiba and independents. Arkaitz Rodríguez, leader of Sortu, and the leaders Bakartxo Ruiz, a reference in Navarra in the last legislature, or Unai Urruzuno, have appeared with him. According to what transpires from the reading carried out by Otegi, the decision of the seven express prisoners and the content of the letter have been agreed with the formation so that their electoral campaign is no longer conditioned.
Declaration of the Political Board of EH Bildu. pic.twitter.com/egjW6jYPUk
— EH Bildu (@ehbildu) May 16, 2023
Otegi has attributed what happened to a “campaign of harassment and demolition” of the Spanish right and extreme right with the “irresponsible” support of other forces that he has not mentioned but that probably alluded to the PNV. He has described what happened as a “quagmire”. But, without mentioning ETA or explaining the process of preparing the candidacies, he has affirmed that this “should not serve as a pretext” for not making a “reflection”. “We understand that we must not abstract from our responsibility and we must act accordingly”, he indicated.
And he added: “Although it is practically inevitable that this type of operation by reactionary and regressive sectors will take place, it is our obligation to do everything possible to avoid them or mitigate their effects, to reaffirm our will to move towards the future and not generate anxiety in other sectors that, from the diversity and even the discrepancy, are willing to walk the path for the construction of democratic coexistence through the exercise of all rights for all people. That is the commitment that we want to acquire today before our people. This is how we interpret the decision of some of the EH Bildu candidates to resign from being councillors. It is a decision that we applaud as it is an unequivocal gesture in the sense of the commitment described”.
The general coordinator of EH Bildu, himself an ex-convict, has indicated that his formation “wants to continue advancing” and that the “almost 4,500 candidates” who are now on lists, in addition to having “all of them” their “civil and political rights in force ”, have signed the commitment “with exclusively peaceful and democratic paths”. “Our candidates fully and literally subscribe to the Declaration of October 18, with the sincere desire to heal wounds. We show our total confidence that the Basque citizenry will know how to interpret the real steps and commitments taken these years to overcome the previous cycle of confrontation and aspire to a future of full peace and freedom”, he concluded.
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