Against the Plan

Today at Berria English:

Basque Socialists propose dropping Plan and reforming Statute of Autonomy

The motions for rejection tabled by the PP, PSE-EE and the “Sozialista Abertzaleak” group did not proceed yesterday during the debate in the Basque Autonomous Community Parliament

Edurne Begiristain – GASTEIZ (Vitoria)

The debate on the Basque Government’s Political Statute began in the Basque Parliament yesterday. Ibarretxe’s Plan or Political Statute Proposal has now passed its first test, after the motions for rejection tabled by the PP, PSE-EE and the Sozialista Abertzaleak were thrown out, because the proposal can now proceed.

The debate on the motions for rejection was long (nearly six hours) and each group stuck to the position it has held until now. In the end, not one of the motions went ahead, because the EAJ, EA and the EB-IU, which make up the Basque Government, voted against all of them. The EB-IU, moreover, withdrew its own motion for rejection and announced that it would be defending its proposal for free association federalism through partial amendments. So the motions of the PP, PSE and Sozialista Abertzaleak were debated in the Parliamentary Committee for Institutions and Interior Matters. Most of the debate centred on the proposals put forward by the Sozialista Abertzaleak group and the PSE-EE to the parties that make up the Basque Government. Arnaldo Otegi proposed to the three parties in the Government that a discussion table, in which consensus could be reached on “the rules of the game” to respect the decisions of Basque citizens, be set up. Jesus Egiguren, in contrast, made a very different offer to Ibarretxe’s government: that the plan should be thrown out and agreement forged with the Socialists on a reform of the Statute of Autonomy. The debate did, however, touch on a number of other issues including the Spanish Constitution, the issue of powers, the Catalan model and the consultation of the people.

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