The president of the PP and candidate for La Moncloa, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, admits that he is "considering" modifying the Organic Law of the Electoral System (Loreg) or some other regulation to allow people who were forced to leave the Basque Country due to threats from ETA to regain the possibility of voting in Euskadi.
In an interview given to the newspaper 'El Correo', as reported by Europa Press, Feijóo condemns the assault suffered by the head of the PP list for Congress in Guipúzcoa, Jon Echeverría, who this Saturday was received in Hernani with "stones and firecrackers", which prevented the normal holding of an election campaign event.
The PP leader emphasizes that the campaign "is not going to be suspended either in Guipúzcoa or anywhere in Euskadi" and argues that "now there are more reasons than ever to keep defending the need to have a Government that confronts the violent and that does not make deals with their political leaders".
After insisting that "violence has never silenced the Partido Popular, not even in the Basque Country", he warns that "it won't be now when we start staying quiet in front of these people". In his view, "Jon's courage, a 22-year-old who defends his ideas with conviction and without fear, should be an example for all of us. And we are going to support him with all the force in the objective of achieving a seat in Gipuzkoa, which we have not had for far too long".
In this context, and with a view to a possible arrival in Government, Feijóo acknowledges that he is "considering" a reform of the Organic Law of the General Electoral System (Loreg) or another provision to enable a mechanism that allows people to vote in Euskadi to those Basques who can show that they left due to the ETA threat. "That is to say, if, for example, a Basque person who has gone because of that threat to Madrid can exercise his right to vote in Euskadi. We are considering it, yes", he details.
Criticism of the role of the PNV and Sánchez
At another point in the interview, Feijóo maintains that the head of Government, Pedro Sánchez, "uses EH Bildu to be president of the Government and intimidate the PNV" and "uses the PNV to get votes to be president and threatens it with Bildu". In his view, the outcome of this situation "we will see in the general elections", but in that "triangular relationship" "the one that loses in this triangular relationship is the PNV".
It is defined as a person who is not a "revanchist" and who states that "if we agree on policies that are good for Spain and, therefore, for Euskadi, I am not going to go against any party", while also saying that "the PNV's commitment entails its ideological deconfiguration".
"Without the Basque Nationalist Party, Sánchez would have fallen earlier because Junts would already have thrown him down. The PNV and Bildu have been the two great allies of the president, even more than Esquerra Republicana", he argues.
Feijóo's goal: to govern alone
With regard to the general elections of 29 November, Feijóo recalls that the PP continues to be "the first political force in Spain" and sets as its goal "to govern alone" with an executive that is "very solid, very strong, very compact, very fast, which makes decisions without having to reach agreement with a partner because we do not have much time".
"We have to do a lot of things. Change is essential for democratic hygiene. We need a Government that knows what the state of the public accounts and infrastructure is; that restores normality in Ceuta; that brings three housing-related projects in the first one hundred days; and that presents before spring the 2027 Budget and before autumn, that of 2028. The more solid, more compact and more homogeneous the Government is, the faster we can move forward", he explains.
Therefore, he calls for a broad majority for the PP, considering that "Spain needs a government of majorities", and accuses Sánchez of being "an ambitious president of the Government" heading an executive that he describes as "a chicken coop". Regarding Vox, he says that "it has to be judged by what it does" and emphasizes that "there are issues in which Vox's positions are very divergent from ours, but we always look for a legal framework". He adds that "if the Constitution and the European treaties do not allow something, we do not negotiate it. We are not going to make a hooded pact".
Feijóo calls for a major agreement on pensions
In the field of social policy, Feijóo says he is "fed up" with the fact that "the nine and a half million older people are used and that every time there is an election call, the socialists say that we do not want to maintain the pensions, when it was they who put them in enormous difficulties, even with a possible intervention of Spain".
The popular candidate emphasizes that "all of us care, not only about ensuring the annual update in accordance with the CPI, but also the viability of the public system for our children and grandchildren" and shows himself open to pushing for a major State-wide agreement that would protect pensions. However, he specifies that "If it is a State pact, it is with all political parties," since "pensions affect citizens no matter what they vote for."