Interview with the general coordinator of EH Bildu Arnaldo Otegi in Euskadi Irratia, September 5, 2022

Euskaraz irakurri: Otegi: “Status izan nahi badugu, status itunak behar ditugu, baita energian ere”

EH Bildu’s General Coordinator, Arnaldo Otegi, today opted for state agreements and has shown willingness to work on Basque energy pact. This is how Euskadi Irratia reacted to Andoni Ortuzar’s proposal this weekend. However, Otegi has indicated that, just as in the field of energy “if we want to be a state”, agreements are also needed in other areas, such as Basque, the media or the police.

EH Bildu believes that to make progress in the Energy Pact it is necessary to do so “from a country perspective”, and it should also be preceded by a “rigorous analysis of Euskal Herria’s energy dependency”. In addition, he emphasized that an energy pact should be based on two starting conditions, “that the energy transition it cannot be done on the basis of the interests of Petronor and Iberdrola” and that it must be raised with the people, “the public must be complicit and involved”.

asked for the inflation and the course of the global economic situation, Otegi has appealed to hope “things should be said as they are, but without falling into catastrophe”. And it is that, in his opinion, “the situation can be resolved if the course is changed in several areas.” He stressed that behind the bad omens there are a number of responsible, agents interested in prolonging the war are “the European elites and governments, NATO and the US”, who “submit” to the latter’s strategy.

To turn the situation around, it is necessary that “the international community aligns itself with the interests of the people and not with the interests of the elites. There is no other way out than the arms de-escalationOtherwise, he warns that inflation, food shortages and rising prices will continue and wonders what can be gained from the war. issues? Who else wins in all this if not the energy oligopoly and the US? Citizens gain nothing from it, of course.”

When asked whether EH Bildu’s proposals do not contradict his support for the government of Spain, which is in line with NATO, Otegi replied that no, EH Bildu does not support the PSOE “we make specific agreements and support measures that represent progress, such as the energy supply decree, the measure to limit the fuel price, the premium pension law, etc. But that does not mean that the government has our support in everything.” He recalled that EH Bildu is against the increase in military spending and NATO strategy because “this country has voted against joining NATO, among other things”. What’s happening is that budgets have to be understood in global terms.”

In this sense, as at the beginning of the political course, he has must intervene in the energy and real estate sectors, “to intervene to what extent? To what is necessary to protect the rights of the people”. He added that “there are people who say that the market makes the brand, we say that politics is too, and that from politics it is also possible to solve people’s problems to a great extent”. He has insisted, yes, that “the deadline for palliative measures has passed and structural measures are necessary”.

Likewise, he stressed the need to relativize the short cycles characterized by elections and legislatures in order to face “the colossal challenges of the future”.