Bilbao (EFE).- The PNV spokesman in Congress, Aitor Esteban, has asked the Government of Spain to “redirect” the project to open a large capacity refugee reception center in Vitoria.
This project has given rise to a controversy between the central executive and the PSE-EE with the nationalist sector of the Basque Government.
Esteban has spoken in this way in statements to the media before participating in a meeting with the mayors and candidates of his formation in the Left Bank and Mining Zone of Bizkaia for the next municipal and regional elections.
Questioned about the controversy opened between the partners of the Basque Government by the project of the Government of Spain to open a large refugee reception center in the capital of Álava, Esteban has indicated that “this project has perfectly reversed”.
«If we are on a path of dialogue and in a willingness of the Basque institutions and the PNV to speak and agree, and nothing more than a call for awards has yet been made, I think that this is perfectly reconcilable and I invited the Government Spanish to dialogue and redress the situation.
Esteban has added that he was not informed of this project although he recently held a meeting with the Minister of Social Security and Migrations, Jose Luis Escrivá, in which they talked about immigration because they have “a fairly fluid relationship on this issue.”
«The Basque Government was not informed of anything in this regard either. What he was told about – he pointed out – was the need to increase the number of places to receive refugees, something in which we agree and we have always offered to do so, but at no time was that center raised and in That model”.
clash of models
“It is a model that does not match the one we are trying to develop in this country and the minister knows it when he is talking about a possible transfer of responsibilities,” he added.
«And this different model (the one advocated by the council of Beatriz Artolazabal-, is not only shared by the Basque institutions, but also by the NGOs that work in this country with refugees.
Regarding the accusations of the general secretary of the PSE-EE, Eneko Andueza, towards the PNV of raising “xenophobic speeches” for its position on this matter, Esteban has indicated that he believes that “they are unfair, excessive and out of place.”
He added that “anyone who knows the policy developed in this area by the Basque institutions and the PNV knows that this is not true.”
“But it is also that what is being considered is a clash of models: the one that wants to develop in a more effective and inclusive way, we believe, the Basque Government and the macro-centre one that the Spanish Government intends to build,” he concluded.
Law of ‘only yes is yes’
Questioned about the reductions in sentences that the so-called “only yes is yes” Law is promoting, Esteban has opined that “the intention of the Law to make a broader type of crime than the one that existed is correct, what happens is that the The interpretation made by the courts is not exactly what was thought.
“For this reason, I do believe that it would be convenient to reflect for the future and, if it is necessary to retouch the Law so that there is no doubt in the courts when applying it, because it seems that the Supreme Court is not going to mark jurisprudence to follow, since I do not rule out its reform”, he concluded. EFE
