Pedro Sánchez has crossed another border. This Friday he held his first meeting with EH Bildu and took the photo that he ran away from throughout the last legislature despite the fact that Arnaldo Otegi's party was one of his priority partners that cemented his majority in Congress.
Now the socialist leader breaks that taboo and has become the first president of the Government, even in office, to meet with the Abertzale party.. In this case, to reissue that alliance and for the six deputies to first vote for his investiture and then form part of a stable majority of support for his government.. EH Bildu considers it a “milestone”.
As a candidate for the investiture proposed by the King, Sánchez led the meeting and was accompanied by his party colleague Santos Cerdán, Secretary of Organization. On behalf of EH Bildu, the nationalist spokespersons in the Lower House, Mertxe Aizpurua, and in the Senate, Gorka Elejabarrieta, attended. They've been together for about an hour.
In a subsequent statement, the Otegi party highlighted the “value” of this image “in a political context where tension, noise and bad manners try to impose themselves on the political debate.”. “This meeting reflects a way of understanding political activity and placing oneself in the current historical moment, in a permanent exercise of responsibility and respect, above other criteria or interests,” they add.
Sánchez greets Azpirua in his meeting with EH Bildu.
Furthermore, EH Bildu has reiterated its already announced support for Sánchez's investiture due to the “clear mandate” of the Basque people in the 23-J elections of “not allowing the reactionary bloc, led by PP-Vox, to form a government in the State.” Spanish”. Stopping the right, they add, is an “indispensable condition” for a new legislature in which “the social and economic rights of workers must be deepened”, “the consolidation of policies that promote peace and democratic coexistence in Euskal Herria” and “the opening of a debate around plurinationality.”
In this context, the Abertzale left has conveyed to the acting president its “full willingness” to give “continuity” to the “most positive aspects” of the previous mandate, although “with ambition to resolve pending issues.”. “The meeting, which took place in a constructive and positive environment, is another milestone that allows us to build a framework of trust to address a cycle of dialogue, negotiation and agreement,” they conclude.
Differences from 2019
This Friday's meeting has shown signs of good relations between the PSOE and EH Bildu, with Sánchez and Cerdán projecting a cordial image and very different from the one that Adriana Lastra and Rafael Simancas gave on December 17, 2019, when they posed with serious expression and face of circumstances during the first meeting between both parties, in which their votes were also sought for Sánchez's investiture.
Then the socialist candidate avoided taking a photo with them and instead sent two prominent people from his team.. Today the opposite. Sánchez shook hands with Aizpurua and Elejabarrieta and appeared smiling with them in the photo. Unlike four years ago, when abstention was enough, which was what they gave him, this time he needs the affirmative vote of his six deputies.
After the meeting between Sánchez and EH Bildu, the general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, described the scene as “the image of shame”, attaching in a tweet the photograph of the acting president shaking hands with Aizpurua.
The socialist candidate has then closed the round of talks for his re-election, which he is holding personally with all the groups with representation except Vox, which he left out from the first moment, with a meeting with the head of the Junts per Catalunya list (JxCat ). Miriam Nogueras, like EH Bildu, was also received by Lastra and Simancas in 2019 along with her fellow member Laura Borràs.