The president of the EBB of the PNV, Aitor Esteban, has reiterated his support for the public pension system "above all" and for its updating in line with the IPC, although he has said that he does not consider the initiative of the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, "realistic"—to "constitutionalize it." "It's a bit less than deceiving people," he said.
With these words, he referred to the "solemn" commitment that the general secretary of the PSOE and head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, announced last Sunday in Bilbao—the epicenter of pensioners' protests—to shield the revaluation of pensions during the next legislature.
In an interview on TVE, collected by Europa Press, Esteban pointed out that his party has "clear that we must defend a public pensions model," recalling that they did so during Mariano Rajoy's term, when "he didn't want to raise pensions" based on the IPC. "It was us who forced this to be the case and, moreover, with a special increase in the case of widow's pensions," he emphasized.
In his view, protecting the public pension system "has to be above all." "Now, I also don't understand certain announcements that aren't very realistic, like the one the president of the Government made yesterday when he said that he was going to constitutionalize the public pension system and the IPC increase, etc," he said.
The jeltzale leader explained that, unless Sánchez intends to frame that shielding within the chapter on fundamental rights of the Constitution, including it among "the guiding principles, serves for nothing; it is not a direct mandate."
Likewise, he recalled that to incorporate it into the block of fundamental rights "two thirds of both Chambers are needed." As he detailed, it would require "dissolving both Chambers, holding new elections, and having the new Chambers ratify it."
"It seems to me that, in a moment of political division, as is the case now, announcing that he is going to do this is a bit less than deceiving people," he reiterated. In any case, he insisted on the need to uphold the public pensions model and guarantee the increase linked to the IPC.
Relationship between PP and Vox
The president of the EBB has also referred to the PP’s decision to renounce contesting the Senate for Gipuzkoa in the general elections, ceding the space to Vox, and has recalled that the general secretary of the Partido Popular himself, Miguel Tellado, “has advocated” voting for the party of Santiago Abascal in this constituency. “The PP has been seeking to bring closer together both forces during all these years,” he said.
For this reason, he has highlighted that Vox “has been moving into the regional governments.” “Once that line has been crossed, I see perfect compatibility, if one finds oneself in that situation, for the PP to bring Vox into the Government,” he emphasized.
Aitor Esteban has reiterated that the PNV will not support an executive in which Abascal’s party participates, and has recalled that, after the 2023 elections, the jeltzales refused to back the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, because Vox was part of the equation. “They needed four votes and we told him no, that we were not willing to do that,” he explained.
For this reason, he has insisted that “a majority that has Vox as a component,” will “never” count on its support. “It is a party that neither believes in the system, nor do we understand that it is democratic when it is saying clearly that its intention would be to outlaw a party like ours, or that it speaks against the autonomous communities,” he indicated, also referring to its positions on social matters.
“We are never going to be there,” he stressed, to clarify that “the majority that there has been and how it has been developed during this last term, has also not been a model of virtues.”
Esteban has recalled that “it has been very complex to move forward in this term because there have been some parties that, simply, plainly and outright, thought they had a majority and that they could carry out all their electoral program when, with forces so different supporting or allowing that investiture, that wasn’t the case.”
“Therefore, there have been very difficult moments and we have had to put our foot down on certain things that could not be as they were being proposed. It has been a term that is not envious to repeat,” he concluded.