The National Assembly of the PNV unanimously proclaimed Imanol Pradales as its candidate for lehendakari this Saturday. The newly elected candidate succeeds Iñigo Urkullu, who has been at the head of the Basque Executive for 12 years, and will represent the PNV in the closest Basque elections in history, for which there is still no date for holding. Pradales (Santurtzi, Bizkaia, 48 years old) assured this Saturday that he is not going to “let down” his party and that he feels “prepared to lead a Basque nation with its own soul and voice in the world.” In his first speech as a candidate for Lehendakari, he has committed to “fight to achieve more and better self-government” so that the Basque Country “is the master of its destiny.”
“I am going to fight for a free Euskadi, of free men and women,” Pradales highlighted at an event held in Durango in which the PNV candidates for the Basque and European elections were presented. Pradales will head the list for Bizkaia; while Barkartxo Tejería, current president of the Basque Parliament, will do so for Gipuzkoa; and Joseba Díez Antxustegi will present Álava. The PNV leadership has also chosen former Bilbao councilor Oihane Agirregoitia, 43, as headliner for the European Parliament elections on June 9.
Andoni Ortuzar, president of the PNV, acted today as the “opening act” for a political event that focused on the figure of Pradales, doctor in Political Science and Sociology and professor on leave at the University of Deusto. “I feel strong and eager. “I'm not going to let you down,” the Peneuvist candidate began by saying, who has acknowledged that he accepted this political challenge (he is currently a deputy for Infrastructure of Bizkaia) because he feels “abertzale (nationalist)” and wants to “contribute to improving Euskadi and continuing to build the Basque nation.”
Pradales has emphasized that he believes in “a free Euskadi built from the freely expressed will” of those who live in this autonomous community. He has referred to the “political geometry” that has been installed in the Spanish political scene as “a window of opportunity” to achieve new conquests for the Basque Country. He recalled his past as a rower to ask the faithful of his party to “row together” and “never give up.” This is “the secret to being able to lift the oars when winning the flag of freedom of Euskadi”, he added.
The lehendakari candidate has defended “more political, economic and social presence [de Euskadi] on the international stage and has set himself the goal of improving the well-being of the Basques, although his “top priority,” as he said, will be “improving public health,” stressed by the Covid pandemic.
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In the front row, Urkullu followed his speech, whom Pradales defined as “a great teacher” and “a reference”, and whom he thanked for having “given everything to the service of Euskadi”. Thanks to him (he has also named the rest of the lehendakaris of his party, without mentioning the socialist Patxi López), the Basque Country is “better”, although he has also admitted that there is a generalized “weakening” of the welfare model. In a context characterized by the difficulties of making ends meet, the individualism of society or the “disaffection and lack of credibility of political parties”, Pradales has warned of the danger of “an increase in left-wing and right-wing populism.” that call into question the values of democracy and feed off each other in the dangerous game of political polarization from the extremes.” Faced with this, he has claimed “politics in capital letters.”
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