Jon Aristu
Pamplona (EFE).- Uxue Barkos (Pamplona, 1964), Geroa Bai’s candidate for the presidency of Navarra, aspires to lead the next progressive government and accuses the PSN of not having, four years ago, “the coherence of wanting for the councils what they wanted” for the Executive, since “what is good for Navarra cannot be bad for Iruña”.
The former president of Navarra in the last legislature and a member of the current Foral Government considers it an act of “cowardice” for the PSN to say that it will vote for itself in the town halls of the Pamplona region and affirms, in an interview with EFE, that it is “dishonest in terms of coherence to remove the wild card from EH Bildu” that does serve “to approve the budgets”.
Question.- What does Geroa Bai aspire to in these elections?
Response.- To repeat a plural, progressive government, and to do so by directing it.
Q.- Do you think that the decision to resign from being part of the government in 2019 and to have focused on Parliament in the face of these elections will benefit you?
A.- I didn’t do it thinking about that, four years ago we weren’t thinking about that. I do not see a president of Navarra being vice president in another subsequent project and I do believe that from Parliament you can continue working. I wouldn’t dare say if she’s going to benefit me or not, I’ve never played with that perspective.
Q.- Do you trust that the PSN will go back to bet on governing with you?
R.- It is not a matter of trust, it is a matter of the PSN not playing with political honesty in terms of coherence in cases such as backing a progressive and plural government in Navarra, but not in the region of Pamplona where the municipal governments of half the population are substantiated.
That possibility existed and they did not do it, wherever Bildu could have been the alternative, once again taking out a wild card that is not honored in terms of political coherence because later it does help us to approve some budgets or to reach the presidency of the Government with one abstention. That seems very good to me, but then it is useless to say that I cannot.
But it is that neither did he do it with Geroa Bai in Egüés or in Zizur, where luckily his vote was not needed. They did not have the slightest coherence in wanting for the municipalities what they did want for the Government.
Q.- There is talk of this possible exchange between the Government and Pamplona between PSN and EH Bildu. Is Geroa Bai going to put this matter on the table as well?
A.- It is not Geroa Bai who is going to play the barter policy and it also seems to me a mistake. I believe that the policy of coherence, of honesty in the approaches, is very important. What I think is good for Navarra I cannot think is bad for Iruña.
We did not play barter politics during the last legislature, we knew that they had not voted in the Pamplona region and we did not stop negotiating for a Government, despite the fact that for many Geroa Bai compañeros and compañeras it was extremely hard to negotiate with whom they had followed the policies of the previous 40 years in their own cities, but we thought that we had to take a step forward on the path started in 2015 and I do not regret it, although everything can be improved.
But this is a legislature to take a step forward and try to delay the moment as the PSN is doing, in my opinion with a certain cowardice, saying that it will vote for itself… we will discuss that the day after the elections if it is tries to reach a consensus.
Q.- President María Chivite puts forming a government with EH Bildu as a red line, you did it, do you understand that they continue to talk about red lines on forces that are in Parliament?
A.- I can share not understanding that at this stage of political reality we are still entrenched in not condemning, for many things, for recent memory, for the impossibility of meeting in the face of other forms of violence. (…) A political formation that is still entrenched in making its transition, which may seem interesting to me, but entrenched in these issues.
There is also a lack of political coherence in saying ‘they do not enter the Government, but I negotiate budgets and I come to the presidency of the Government of Navarra with an abstention’, which is not free.
By the way, there is no reason to blush when Navarra Suma tries to make others blush because they have also agreed on strategic votes. Let’s be very demanding with the important issues to build a better society, but let’s not play to tear our clothes when what perhaps sometimes worries is the reading that can be done in Madrid.
Q.- With a view to reissuing the current government formula, what aspects would you negotiate differently?
A.- There are issues that surprised us, such as a government that came with 10-11 departments, overnight there were 13, and that distorted a negotiation that for Geroa Bai was not going to weigh.
It is no less true that some agreements and disagreements have been affected by that reality within the Government that does not correspond to the reality of representation in Parliament, we will work on that. Nor do I hide the fact that we were not opposed to a government of that size, but that it later had that development in the structure seemed excessive to us.
Q.- From the way you tell it, with no changes by city councils and with fewer departments, it seems that they lost out.
R.- No, losing in the development of differences that may exist within the Government, but losing out on a negotiation that has not been initially raised in those terms. (…) These kinds of issues happen to you once, not twice.
Q.- Does it depend on the results that you continue dedicating yourself to politics or will you continue no matter what?
A.- I am going to continue, I have it very clear.
Q.- UPN says that it is the only party that makes decisions in Navarra and that in Geroa Bai they are made in Bilbao.
R.- It is nonsense like a temple. Geroa Bai’s decisions have always been made in Navarra. And UPN lies, it does not make the decisions in Navarra. Every time he has needed to convince a government partner, he has done it in Madrid. The best example, the last negotiation around the Labor Reform. UPN, when it has not been able to reach agreements in Navarra, has gone to Madrid and has usually achieved them.