The PNV spokesperson in Congress and lead candidate for Guipúzcoa, Maribel Vaquero, has pointed out that, if the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, does not resign after the serious accident between high-speed trains in Urda (Toledo), the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will have to "assume the responsibility of dismissing him".
In an interview granted to Diario Vasco, reported by Europa Press, Vaquero has recalled that Sánchez "said that it was unthinkable for it to happen for a second time in a period of ten months" an accident "of these characteristics", referring to the previous accident in Adamuz.
"We agree that this is unthinkable. Therefore, political responsibilities will have to be assumed. That can be a resignation or it can be a dismissal, and it is in the hands of the president to decide it and also in the hands of the Minister of Transport", the jeltzale leader added.
In view of the minister's appearance on Tuesday in Congress, she has stressed that "it is in his hands to resign, and if he does not resign, the president will have to assume that responsibility and decide whether to dismiss him or not to dismiss him". In her view, "we believe that more mud should not be stirred up with this issue, but in a democratic state governed by the rule of law the logical thing would be to assume responsibilities".
For the spokesperson of the Basque Group, the PNV has not rushed to call for Óscar Puente's resignation, but rather, in her opinion, the one who got ahead was Sánchez himself, as well as the minister, by pointing from the very first moment to "a failure by an Adif worker". In this regard, she considers that "there has been a kind of attempt on their part to distribute responsibilities in a hasty manner".
Asked whether the PSOE candidate for reelection as president has already lost the general elections as a result of this accident, she replied that election campaigns take "many turns". As she admitted, "obviously, this accident does not benefit him at all. He came out with the idea of focusing the elections on the 'Maricarmen case' and the housing issue, but this terrible accident has intervened and you never know where events are going to turn. Although they may seem short, campaigns are long. We will see what effect it may have".
The PNV representative believes that "polarization will harden the messages even more. What we have to do is reduce the tension". In her view, "we cannot divide ourselves all into camps that interest some and others. If we stay only in the blocks of fascism-antifascism, of left-right or wherever they want to place you, there we do not solve people's lives".
Vaquero has pointed out that some place the PNV "with the reds and others place it with the blues". She has defended that "we are a very progressive party in social matters and we have the firm conviction that wealth must be generated in order to be able to distribute it. If Euskadi has the social services it has and the protection policies, it is because it has managed its self-government and has generated that wealth".
After stressing that the jeltzales are "anti-fascists" and that the PNV "has been persecuted by fascism", she stated that they do not need "to prove anything". In this line, she assured: "We are not going to allow any kind of democratic involution either in the acquired civil rights, nor in public services, nor in political rights. In the end, the PNV neither left nor right: the PNV is with Euskadi".
Basque Sociómetro and standoff with EH Bildu
In relation to the Basque Sociómetro, which forecast a possible victory for EH Bildu in the general elections with seven seats, followed by the PSE-EE with five and the PNV with four, which would leave the jeltzales without their own parliamentary group, the candidate for Gipuzkoa has stressed that the sovereigntist coalition has done "followership" and that, in fact, "it has wanted to place itself more on the left of the left of the PSOE than in defending Euskadi".
In her opinion, "it seems to me a media slogan what Bildu does. Where is what it does then? Where is Bildu's defense of self-government in Madrid? If in every law and in every bill that is taken to Congress or the Senate they are more concerned with defending other things than with defending Basque self-government".
Questioned about whether they fear an overtaking by EH Bildu, she limited herself to pointing out that the PNV "what it has to do is its work: listen to Basque society and act accordingly". She stressed that "we have to defend the Basque agenda without looking at what the others are doing. And then we will have to reach agreements. Each one has its own model: the one Bildu has is not the one the PNV has. We are going to Madrid to defend Euskadi and they go there to be the left of the left of the PSOE".
At this point, she claimed "the centrality" of her party, "which is the one that reaches agreements and which is often decisive in Madrid". In her view, "approving what Sánchez says without even looking at what he has written is following along. Not everything is black or white, there is a lot of gray and agreements need to be reached".
Maribel Vaquero has admitted that not having its own group in Congress would complicate its "political action". For this reason, she has stressed that "we want to have a strong political group", in order to convey to the citizenry "the need for the PNV to have a sufficient majority to have its own voice in Madrid".
The jeltzale candidate has reiterated that they will never be "in a PP and Vox government" and has lamented that the Popular Party is "completely in the hands" of Abascal's formation. "Our position is to confront it decisively," she emphasized.
In this line, she warned that, after the elections, it may fall to the PNV to "move toward more self-government and defend a new status". "Or it may fall to us, if a PP and Vox government arrives, to have to entrench ourselves and make a radical defense of what our current self-government is", she added.
She also warned the Basque citizenry that, "by voting for parties that are delegations of state headquarters, they will always vote what their party in Madrid dictates to them". In any case, she advanced that, if Pedro Sánchez repeats as President of the Government and needs the support of the PNV, they will be "much, much more demanding".
Riots in Bilbao and youth violence
Vaquero has also spoken about last Monday's riots in Bilbao and considers the rise in violence among young people to be "very worrying." In her view, "the images were very harsh and it seemed that we were going back to past times that we believed were overcome. Seeing so many young people resorting to violence for no real reason is alarming. Violence is being trivialized and we need more education, starting with families themselves."
The PNV deputy has defended that it is essential to investigate "who is behind summoning those young people specifically to carry out the acts of vandalism." She has called for "all political forces to be forceful when condemning these events unequivocally, whoever carries them out."
For this reason, she has explained that, "when unequivocal condemnation statements are presented in the different institutions, all parties must be able to sign them without qualifications." In her opinion, "the situation must be redirected, educated and acted upon forcefully against violent groups, whether from the far right or the far left."
Maribel Vaquero has pointed out that EH Bildu "finds it hard to condemn certain events due to its own historical baggage" linked to ETA. "When we speak of truth, justice and reparation as a guarantee of non-repetition, forcefulness is required. What happened must be known, and deep self-criticism must be made about one's own past. That critical look at the past is needed so that today's young people have no shadow of a doubt that using violence is always unjust and that there is no reason that justifies it," she has called for.