Pradales: “I see Feijóo obsessed with Vox, the M-30 ecosystem has infected him”

Imanol Pradales (April 21, 1975) represents the most visible exponent of the generational change in the PNV, a process that this party has intensified in recent years to maintain its hegemony. But the lehendakari practices a classic policy, calls for less polarization, more dialogue and, above all, more calm, which does not prevent him from criticizing, always with moderation, the Government for part of its management and the PP for its tilt towards Vox.

Read more The Brics summit condemns “any unilateral act of war” in the Delhi Declaration

Video

Lehendakari, in our previous interview, two years ago, you saw the Spanish legislature as very complicated. It does not seem to have improved…

The news is that the legislature continues, right? Indeed, it is a very complicated situation due to the judicialization surrounding the government and because there has not been a single agreement among the major political forces. On the contrary, all bridges have been blown up. Tension has increased and the residue this is leaving in Spanish politics is very worrying. It is also a legislature of economic growth and job creation, although we are missing the opportunity to make the necessary structural reforms.

Do you believe, as Aitor Esteban said, that the legislature is already finished and elections should be called now?

The legislature is in its final stretch. There is an open question, which is whether Sánchez will present the budgets or not. It would be a way to give meaning to the closure of the legislature, beyond whether they may succeed or not, which is very complicated. He also has an open crisis in the pipeline, which is Ceuta, which if not resolved I believe will, de facto, mark the end of the legislature.

If the budgets are not approved, is it time to call elections?

It would be the time, indeed. It would be an almost technical advance. But I believe the president should put a budget project on the table.

What is your assessment of the support the PNV has given to Sánchez? Has it been worth it?

It is not up to me to make the assessment, but the president of my party. As lehendakari, we had statutory compliance commitments that have advanced in these two years. We have closed 12 transfers, but there are other very relevant ones pending, especially the Social Security package or the ports of general interest in Euskadi. President Sánchez and I agreed on a schedule that has not been fulfilled. And we are talking about the compliance with the Statute of Guernica, which is a political pact that will turn 47 years old, and which was already minimal for that generation. Its application has been used by Spanish governments of one kind or another as a bargaining chip to obtain our support in Congress, but if there is a political pact endorsed by the Basque people and with the status of an organic law, it cannot be that 46 years later it is still not fulfilled. Moreover, today Euskadi requires new and different tools because the social reality is different. For example, the migration issue. We need to renew the statutory pact and move towards a new self-government pact that also incorporates these issues.

In Catalonia, the discussion about the new Statute led to the independence process and you have always maintained some caution about entering a similar dynamic. If commitments are broken or there is a period of competence rollback, could there be a leap in Euskadi’s demands?

In Euskadi, discreet conversations are taking place between the Basque Nationalist Party, Bildu, and the Socialist Party to agree on the bases of a new political statute. These conversations are progressing discreetly and positively. It is up to me to close the Guernica statutory file to address this second one. If the political context in Spain changes and there is a PP government supported by Vox, the scenario for self-government will darken enormously. I am concerned because what we have seen from Vox is an attempt to end the autonomies, to recentralize, to deny Basque identity and even the language itself.

In this darker scenario you mentioned and that polls predict, have you established as lehendakari any relationship with the PP, with which you now have significant differences?

There are different sensitivities in the PP. I maintain a good institutional relationship with presidents of communities like Alfonso Rueda or Juanma Moreno. They are aware of the plurinational reality and the Basque, Catalan, Galician, or Andalusian singularities. They understand that recentralization would not be good. But there is another PP, embodied by Mrs. Ayuso, in very different positions. And I see Núñez Feijóo obsessed with looking to his right. I think the Madrid M-30 ecosystem has infected him. I see Feijóo very tilted to the right and very obsessed with Vox. It remains to be seen what Feijóo we would see if he reaches Moncloa. It will also depend on whether he needs Vox’s support. I believe that the more moderate the PP is, the better things will go for the whole State.

Are you willing to negotiate possible support for Feijóo?

The PNV has always defended Euskadi’s interests wherever they are at stake and has always played to negotiate and seek agreements, regardless of who the president of the Government is and their political color. Today, the reality is that there is a president who is Pedro Sánchez and we will play the ball until the last minute, as long as there is a game. What happens in general elections remains to be seen.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the far right has come close to an absolute majority, do you think that could happen in Spain? In Catalonia, a populist and independentist far-right party, Aliança per Catalunya, has also emerged, is Euskadi immune to something like that?

It is a phenomenon happening in Europe and all of the West. And in all cases, shared characteristics occur: frustration in society and a consequent anti-system reaction. A frustration that sometimes has to do with migration issues, with the lack of expectations of new generations, or sometimes with political frustrations as in the case of the procés. This happens because we do not provide a response from the system. We have to ask ourselves what we are doing wrong to be unable to respond to these people who are too easily labeled as fascists or Nazis, but who are the neighbor next door. And we also fall into the perverse game of permanent tension that only feeds those far-right or far-left parties. That said, Aliança Catalana is a phenomenon that has emerged in Catalonia and I do not see it emerging in Euskadi today. But no one is free because democracy must be defended and cultivated permanently with respect and exemplary behavior, speaking clearly to the citizens and without falling into the “you too” game.

Read more A story about women’s bodies on the battlefield wins the Golden Lion in Venice

You recommended the PP to moderate and not be dragged by Vox, would you advise the same to Junts regarding Aliança Catalana?

I do not know what Junts’ reaction is regarding Aliança Catalana. But I believe that phenomenon will not only affect Junts. It is more transversal because social frustrations are so. If Le Pen has shown anything in France, it is that the first neighborhoods where she gained strength were the working-class neighborhoods historically the stronghold of socialism and communism. Before World War II, those who fed frustrations were not the class that called itself right-wing. Now frustration is affecting the middle classes, so I believe it not only harms Junts but also the PSC or the PP. It is the whole set of Catalan parties that must reflect on the Aliança Catalana phenomenon.

Does the PNV request the transfer of immigration to the Basque government, as Junts does?

The migration issue has been on the Basque agenda since the beginning of the legislature. At the 2024 presidents’ conference, the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, and I already made a proposal on immigration that did not pass then but later served as the basis for the decree on the distribution of foreign minors in the State. At the 2025 presidents’ conference in Barcelona, we both insisted on debating the migration issue, although only Ayuso’s snub with Catalan and Basque was discussed later. But we brought a document so that the State would have a cooperation and collaboration plan with the autonomous communities in managing migratory flows. I have always conveyed to Sánchez the need for Euskadi to have competencies in this area. It is something that cannot be solely in the hands of the States, especially border territories. In Euskadi, we are close to 15% migrant population and this challenges us in terms of reception, integration, identity, language…

How do you think the Government has managed the Ceuta crisis and what do you think about the role of intelligence services and security forces in this case?

The Ceuta crisis is humanitarian and political. The government’s management has not been adequate. I think it is quite obvious that there was lack of coordination, lack of anticipation, and that there was no speed in the response, which caught the president off guard, who had accustomed us to a certain capacity for quick leadership in any crisis. In this one, he did not have the reflexes, capacity, skill, or information to act as in others. The PP’s response has also left much to be desired. Because here we face a different crisis that I dare to call a State crisis and that I believe required and requires a State response. And the PP has decided to make this an element of wear and opposition, entering Vox’s game. It is a crisis that acts as an accelerator of an issue on the social agenda such as migration, which feeds the far right. That is why I believe it is not just any crisis. Regarding the intelligence services, what is evident is that they are also not up to the task. Sánchez has to channel this issue because I believe this could end the legislature itself if the crisis is not closed now.

Do you think the Ceuta crisis can harm the PSOE more than corruption?

Sánchez already carries a very heavy backpack. The set of judicial procedures and open cases weighs heavily, but the Ceuta case has entered street conversation. That is why I think it is important.

Do you think the King should visit Ceuta?

The State will know how to manage it. Here there is another important issue, which is the absence of the EU because in the end Ceuta is a European border and it strikes me that Europe does not behave as it does with other crises in Italy, for example. The neglect and absence of the EU in this matter is striking and significant.

Regarding the judicial cases affecting Sánchez, do you think the government is right when it talks about lawfare?

I believe each case is different. Putting all under the concept of lawfare is unfair, but ignoring that in some cases there may be lawfare is also unfair. But beyond that issue, there is a power in the State, the Judiciary, that is not subject to control, only self-control. And that is not resolved from the point of view of democratic deepening in the State.

Has Basque society overcome the past marked by ETA terrorism?

In terms of coexistence, we are in a manifestly better position than ten or twenty years ago. We have had almost 15 years without terrorism in Euskadi and the wounds are healing. There are still some tics, some authoritarian attitudes, that arise occasionally. We have had movements like GKS (Gazte Koordinadora Sozialista) and other splinter groups from the abertzale left that use gatherings like festivals, football, or Vox demonstrations to cause disturbances. The targeting of police and ertzainas in certain public spaces has not disappeared, graffiti still appears… We are infinitely better, but there are still tics from the past. And the abertzale left still needs to say loud and clear that killing was wrong and make an explicit condemnation of its trajectory and those who used violence in that way. They need to take a definitive ethical step.

How do you see Catalonia after the years of the procés and in this new stage of Salvador Illa’s government?

I have always felt admiration for Catalonia and what it has represented. I do not know Catalan politics in detail, but I perceive that Catalonia has to recover its self-esteem. I think it has not yet recovered it. Many things have happened in Catalonia in recent years. Catalonia has been the economic engine of the State, the cultural engine, it has had international projection capacity… it has to recover its self-esteem to move forward. I also believe that to definitively overcome a phase and be able to talk about political normalization, Carles Puigdemont must return to Catalonia. And that will not mean that the conflict of Catalonia’s fit in the State has been resolved, just as Euskadi’s has not been resolved. This is an issue that remains open and today the conditions, in my opinion, are not given for this to be resolved because we have a State politically decomposed due to the great confrontation between the two major parties.

Read more The Valencian educational community takes to the streets again three days after the start of the school year