You presented the EH Bildu government project: feminist, once to start and one.

I called for a feminist government, but I'm sure people are passing by. The claim seems essential to me if we are going to work every day towards feminism. The implementation of the feminist government would be a revolution for this society in all fields. When there's machist violence, we're very startled, we're making outbreaks of excitement, but if we don't treat the issue as a need to change everyday life, we don't cut off extreme violence. Women often appear as victims, but we're more than that. For example, where women are an active part of the world ' s peace processes, the results of these processes are fruitful. Therefore, we women deserve the right to equality to participate in society. And it's not just that we suffer violence, women, among other things, don't get the same pay as men.

In the investiture session he claimed another political culture to govern. What is another political culture?

Well, working on some of the points in our programme: firstly, to carry out a law of transparency, to apply a transparent law to what political parties do, to ensure that citizens have some control of politics. Another political culture is to ask and respond to people about issues that have a lot of influence. That is why we also propose a Consultation Act, for example, to apply it to the issue of the incinerator. In addition, the new political culture must help us to get out of the political chextra of every day. We politicians are in a rather dumb contest, saying who says a bigger word. We have to lower the tone, the political confrontation is fine, but that is why we politicians have to be an example, we have to work on political conciliation in a different way, we do not get stuck in words, perhaps the words of the past are no longer worthwhile. It is true that everyone has their political history, but after thirty years the time has come to renew our positions. The citizens renew theirs more often than we do. In the reply made to me by Mr. Alfonso Alonso of the PP, he said he agreed with what I said about feminism. I liked it, because we don't share anything but PP and EH Bildu. Let's sit down and start talking about it.

What is your 60-year assessment of the political legacy of the Abertzale left? That is to say, its political culture, including ETA.

To begin with, at present the Abertzale left option is EH Bildu, and in it is also sortu, although there are also Aralar, EA and Alternatiba. The first two make it their own to the Abertzale left. EH Bildu has decided what he wants to be and how he wants to act in politics: only on political and democratic avenues, insofar as the road touches ETA. EH Bildu is a left-wing sovereign coalition. These are the criteria he has set for going down the road. Especially in the election campaign, the other parties have referred to the Abertzale left to attack EH Bildu, but now we are something else, bigger and wider. We want to place Euskal Herria as a sovereign people in the future, from the left, in the line of peace and social justice. It would be a great irresponsibility – as I explained to Joseba Egibar – if the PNV did not value this. The assessment of the history of the
Abertzale left has to be made especially sortu, since the Sortu spokesman, Arnaldo Otegi, has made his contribution. It can be assessed in one way or another, but surely the time has not yet come to analyse some things in depth. It is time to take steps towards peace and coexistence, later we will have to stop to look at the new history in a more painstaking way to analyze some passages of history, both to one another when the pain has been alleviated a little. The Abertzale left is also affected. For example, prisoners and exiles are not respected for their rights. First we have to heal the wounds well, the stains will be forever, but if we heal them well they won't get pus. Otherwise, history shows us that wounds that did not close well continue to yield dizziness. I am referring to the Spanish National Uprising.

“Our project is based on realism, yours is not feasible,” Egibar said in the investiture debate.

Our project is feasible, and if the PNV had another project, if it had other priorities, for example in the socio-economic area, it would approach some of the things we propose. Our project is contrasting, it has its economic report. Another thing is that the models and priorities must be changed, that the funds that are now being used for some policies should be allocated to others. For example, EH Bildu proposes bringing the tax system we have closer to Europe. Not overnight, but we are ready to remember those who want to change. The PNV says that we are in a hurry, because no, we are going to make our way slowly. Examining every subject and observing every thing very carefully, let no one think that I want for my children that Egibar does not want to do. Sometimes you have to lose a little, you have to “give”. Most of the citizens of Euskal Herria live well, but there are thousands of people who don't live well, who have trouble using light. We must not forget that these thousands of children, adolescents, young people and adults are on the line of poverty. We don't have to build a two-speed society. Many pensioners live with very little money. After working hard their whole lives, they cannot live a dignified old age. They live next to us. Most of us live well, but we can all live better if those of us who live very well live more humbly. I'm ready.

“We’re not going to take anyone to a dead end,” Egibar said. Before that ETA was prevented, now EH Bildu.

Neither do we. No one was taken away. Our goal is to find better outlets for this people. Because I sat on the floor of a floor, because there were no chairs, they didn't put me on a dead end, that is, because instead of taking me to the school of the time they took me to the ikastola. In the past, this people launched a number of State instruments, both in cooperatives and in the ikastolas. The one at the time seemed like a dead end, but it didn't. Sometimes you have to risk. It's time to risk.

You are the only political force that has the objective of starting to exercise independence. This people does not seem to be very independent. You're the only ones.

At the moment, the only ones who claim that the independence of Euskal Herria is possible are us, but the PNV also claims independence in its statutes. Then, if Iñigo Urkullu says “independence is not the end of the twenty-first century”, then I find it unintelligible and unbelievable. I would say to lehendakari that, in the twentieth century, Norway or Montenegro have become independent in Europe. And XXI.ean Scotland, Catalonia or the Basque Country can also become independent. We can be Denmark, or by its size, like Luxembourg. We need means to develop as a people, to live up to any other people. We have to tell the people the truth. If we are sovereign parties, insofar as we are sovereign, we will ask the citizens whether they want independence or not. The parties also have to talk about ways of sharing sovereignty, because some states share the sovereignty of the people with the banks, without consulting the citizens.

What resource does this people need to start separating from Spain?

To begin with, we have a labour law imposed on the workplace, which is totally destroying the rights conquered by workers during years of struggle. In the management of taxes, for example, they are managed by MEPs, but on many taxes we have no intervention. But the PNV, with whom he speaks, says one thing or another, we should all speak more clearly. Likewise, at the National Assembly in February at the Baluarte de Pamplona/Iruña it was said that Euskal Herria is a nation, that he has the right to decide, that the political subject must be recognized. If it's true, we're two. However, the PNV does not claim independence as we do, but has fallen in recent decades.

The governance pact between the PSE-EE and the PNV has materialised this Monday in Bilbao. In the course of history...

Yes, but it does not give a majority to the PNV. I told Mrs Mendia in the investiture plenary that she has managed to be in the government in a very difficult situation, which has given her impressive visibility. The PSE-EE will have three departments, it is magnificent considering the outcome of the elections, and when the PSOE is already annihilated in Spain. I recognized that merit to Mendia. In any case, we have already known this formula, and at the moment Euskal Herria is living another historic moment, we need a new agreement. Because the situation in Navarre has changed, they are on the way to materialise another policy – I do not know if they will materialise, because the reason for the state is attacking the force – the political forces here are doing a great job, the agreement is an example. In Iparralde, for the first time, it is an institution that brings together the three historic territories of the CVA. This people therefore needed a different kind of agreement, not least because the agreement puts a certain veto on the PNV.

The PNV wants to update the Gernika Statute. What attitude will you take?

We are not going to reject a single proposal. It is essential for us that this new Statute should guarantee the right to decide. EH Bildu will work in the Basque Parliament on all the points to be put on the table. Of course, the decisions will be made by ourselves, we will try to reach an agreement that will lead to change.

“If anyone is left out of this agreement, let them stay for their own decision,” said lehendakari Urkullu.

It has to be that way. But something will have to be done to bring them all together, isn't it? If the PNV has drafted the right to decide in its statutes, it should also set it in the new statute. That is what Mr Ortuzar continues to claim now. But is the pp going to enter into that?The EBB
president of the PNV, Andoni Ortuzar, has stated that the right to decide will be at the heart of the new statute. The government programme of the PSE and the PNV has been "in line" with the demands and concerns of the citizens.
He said it to the people or to the press, but the government agreement signed with the PSE is not written. If the programme coincides with the concerns of the citizens, of the 75 Members of this Parliament we are in favour of the right to decide 57: PNV, Podemos Elkarrekin and EH Bildu. According to the citizens, 60% of the Basques would like to be asked about the independence of Catalonia. Let us therefore make policy in this direction in Parliament.

If the PNV were to agree the state's budgets with the Spanish Government, will it affect Parliament's progress?

Yes, of course. The PNV will take advantage of pp weakness to deal with a few more things. But it will only be a change of chrome, we want to work on other parameters. We cannot accept the resources that the Spanish Government has presented to this Parliament. The pp has said he is willing to withdraw the appeals against the TC ruling. It therefore recognises that it has established a specific policy. It is now ready to withdraw them when it suits it. In these parameters we cannot make policy. That is a disgrace and we must explain it to the public, and also that the Spanish Government is oppressing us.

In the meantime, what is Parliament’s Committee on Self-Government working on? What is the EH Bildu roadmap?

We have not yet had the first meeting, we have given the first time to Podemos to make its contribution. Now, on the one hand, we have to talk to the parties…

So, it's for long.

Yes, but we are not going to start from scratch, because a job was done in the previous legislature. Citizenship has chosen us for four years. Egibar told me that we need historical patience...

And democratic patience. The new political culture of the Basques seems to be a historic and democratic patience.

Well, we've had them and we'll need them. In these four years we have to tell the public that at least we have put in place a new policy. It will not materialise in this legislature, but if the new statute introduces the right to decide, it will be a great achievement. We are not here forever, then they might or may not choose us again.

Lehendakari Ibarretxe assumed the new Statute in the Basque Parliament and moved to Madrid, where he remained for two years. Will it be different this time?

In our view, before we go to negotiate in Madrid we should have the support of the citizens. If what is agreed in this Parliament is supported by the citizens, we will go to Madrid much more forcefully. I do not want to lose hope before I leave, the legislature is important, we are going to take steps. We must go step by step.

When ETA was in the toughest of the fighting, some said in Madrid that without violence everything was possible, including independence. After ETA left its business, there was talk of a kind of transition. Is history not being repeated? If so, what can EH Bildu do?

Independence can be proclaimed, but it cannot be implemented. That is the case. The Spanish State has a terrible problem of territoriality, both with Catalonia and with the Basque Country. I do not believe that Spain can make a constitutional change. The democratic deficit in Spain is evident, Spain has clearly stated that it is unique and complete, so there will be nothing new in that sense, neither that pp sends it, nor that others send it.

So ...

At that time, I believe that a new Statute can be achieved, which is the time of 35 years later, in which the right to decide is enshrined.