Geroa Bai has proposed that Basque become an official language throughout the Navarre territory, that citizens can endorse a possible reform of the Organic Law of Reintegration and Improvement of the Foral Regime of Navarre (Lorafna), and that the foral Parliament assumes the capacity to initiate that regulatory change, a power that currently only the Government of Navarre holds.
The coalition announced this Thursday, in a press conference, the main lines that it will defend in the committee of the Parliament of Navarre responsible for updating the Lorafna, for which parliamentary groups have until September 29 to submit their proposals.
The president of the foral Legislature and parliamentarian of Geroa Bai, Unai Hualde, along with the spokesperson of the group, Pablo Azcona, have detailed the ten key proposals that will become the conclusions that the formation will register in said committee.
In this context, Hualde emphasized that "it is time to recognize that Basque, the own language of Navarre along with Spanish, has the character of an official language throughout the Foral Community of Navarre."
When questioned about the possibilities of reaching a broad agreement around this idea, Unai Hualde pointed out that the Socialist Party "has assumed in recent weeks something that was already recognized in the foral law of Basque, which is an own language of Navarre, and being that so, the coherent thing is that it be official throughout Navarre, and that this status allows for special protection policies for Basque." In his opinion, "It makes no sense that the Spanish Government of the Socialist Party is defending the official status of Basque in Europe and yet, where it recognizes that it is an own language, in Navarre, it is not defended."
Another of the central ideas of Geroa Bai for the reform of the Lorafna is that "the Navarre citizens" are placed "at the center" of the process. In this line, Pablo Azcona has argued that "the new Lorafna must necessarily rest on the free democratic will of the Navarre citizens" and that "this new framework based on a substantial reform of the current Lorafna needs to be endorsed by the Navarre citizens, which would imply an added legitimacy to the current norm."
Azcona has also emphasized that "the uniqueness of our foral regime is compatible with democratic deepening and cannot justify that in the 21st century the citizenship of our foral Community has no voice, constituting an unjustifiable exception in the autonomous sphere of the Spanish State".
Among the proposals is also the inclusion of "measures that strengthen the institutions included in the Lorafna, starting with the Parliament itself, Government, Presidency of the foral Community and others that have been incorporated into the institutional reality of the Community such as the Ombudsman, the Chamber of Comptos or the Transparency Council". In this section, the coalition sees it as "essential to collect the power for the Parliament of Navarra, as a representative institution of the Navarrese citizenship, to have direct capacity to promote the reform of the Lorafna, as happens in the field of autonomous statutes".
Hualde has also detailed the intention to "strengthen collaboration mechanisms to deepen" relations with neighboring territories "from the institutional and political reality of Navarra, especially in cases where there are special historical, cultural, and linguistic ties", referring to the Basque Autonomous Community, the Iparralde Community, and the Department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
Likewise, Geroa Bai advocates for a "strong" presence of Navarra in the European sphere, promoting that it has "voice and vote in the Ecofin as a region with its own Treasury" and a relevant involvement in forums such as the Macroregion of the Atlantic Arc.
The formation also proposes to introduce inclusive language in the Lorafna to avoid any gender discrimination and to make "all people" visible, as well as to incorporate a catalog of rights and duties of the Navarrese citizenship in order to "guarantee our social and democratic model".
In the competential sphere, the coalition defends expanding the powers of Navarra to be able to face challenges such as the fight against climate change, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, demographic aging, migratory flows, or the need to "shield democracy against authoritarianism".
Another of the keys that Geroa Bai raises is "to guarantee a Navarra-State relationship based on the principle of real and effective bilateralism, with respect to a foral regime that, as it is already recognized, cannot be unilaterally modified but that also cannot be emptied with competency erosions or with the frequent jurisdictional recourse by the State."
The coalition also considers that the current preamble of the Lorafna "obeys a certain historicist and identity vision" and proposes "to take advantage of this reform to replace it with a preamble in accordance with the reality of the plural Navarra in which we live."
As a political horizon, Unai Hualde has expressed his desire for the Parliament of Navarra to close the legislature with an agreement that implies "a mandate to the Government of Navarra to undertake the reform, which would be reasonable in terms of deadlines to be addressed in the next legislature."
In relation to the proposal of the Government of Navarra to soften the restrictions on the power of the Presidency of the Executive to call early elections, Hualde has indicated that his party is still studying the approach, although he has admitted that "it could make sense" and that "It seems that maintaining those limitations does not make sense in light of what happens in other statutes."