The PNV considers that “the process of updating the self-government should be aimed at the institutionalization of the right to decide of the Basque people, giving way to the free will and democratically expressed by the Basque citizenship.”

This is stated in the document “Diagnosis of the moment to build the future of Euskadi“which the PNV has presented at its VIII General Assembly, which is held this weekend at the Bilbao Exhibition Center (BEC), in Barakaldo (Bizkaia) under the slogan” Abian Zurekin-On the road with you. “

The president of the PNV of Bizkaia, Itxaso Atutxa, has presented the diagnosis “of the current Euskadi and post-covid” that the EBB has carried out together with “experts” external to the PNV and that will serve as a basis for the process of “active listening” that the party going to take place.

Atutxa stressed that there is “a historical moment” marked by “uncertainty and constant transformation” and that the PNV intends, based on this diagnosis and “listening to Basque society”, to draw up an “agenda” that includes the ” answers to the main challenges “.

The diagnosis advocates “undertaking the creation of a historical account of the Basque, which represents a national understanding of one’s own cultural heritage and offers a certain idea of ​​nation” and considers Euskera an element “to promote and expand for the survival of identity Basque “.

The PNV includes in this document that “the process of self-government update it must be aimed at the institutionalization of the right to decide of the Basque People, giving channel to the free will and democratically expressed by the Basque citizenship “.

“From the recognition of its identity and national character, the Basque People is the holder of the right to decide and the regulation of its exercise. It is a democratic right that must be recognized and its exercise, regulated and agreed,” says the diagnosis made by the EBB.

Atutxa has indicated that the right to decide “will be another issue” that the PNV will have to “talk and listen” with citizens, but he recalled that “there is an area, which is the parliamentary area” in which both the PNV and the rest of the parties “will have to continue making their contributions.”

Furthermore, it points out that “the institutionalization of the Basque Country has the capacity to become identity adhesion engine“because the institutions, to the extent that they provide solutions to the issues of the Basques,” will be helping to reinforce the sense of national identity. “

Listening process

The document also refers to a series of “priority challenges” such as sustainability, equality between men and women, the demographic challenge, the Basque language, the maintenance and strengthening of social services, the continuous improvement of the health system, education or job creation and support for economic activity.

The PNV intends to work on the document with Basque society throughout the listening process that it will launch after the assembly so that citizens can make their contributions and thus “improve” it.

At 4:30 p.m., “a new model of interacting with the PNV, different from the traditional militancy but that will enable, whoever so wishes, to establish and maintain a quality conversation “with the party leaders.

The General Assembly will conclude on Sunday with a political act starting at 11:30 am with a representative of the EGI youth and the president of the EBB, Andoni Ortuzar.

Atypical Congress

The PNV faces a General Assembly this weekend, the equivalent of a congress in another party, come to less, “atypical” according to the party itself, for almost two years of successive postponements due to the pandemic.

Thus, the eighth General Assembly does not include a National Assembly to appoint the president and the eight members of the Euzkadi Buru Batzar (EBB) (it was already done a year ago, in December 2020) and neither does it have a political presentation or a reform of the bylaws, which were approved in December 2020.

The electoral successes and the “internal peace” that the PNV is experiencing justify the continuity of the leaders who have made it possible, in what may be the last term of a generation that has led the party since 2004, that of Iñigo Urkullu. , Andoni Ortuzar, Joseba Aurrekoetxea, Koldo Mediavilla and Aitor Esteban, all of them close to 65 when this mandate ends in 2024, as well as Joseba Egibar.