Aitor Esteban, PNV president, demanded greater effort from militants at Aberri Eguna in Bilbao to stop EH Bildu overtaking them in 2027 elections and undoing Basque self-government. Lehendakari Imanol Pradales harshly criticized the pro-independence left and demanded more powers from the central government. EH Bildu, in Pamplona, called for deep institutional change.
Aitor Esteban kicked off the PNV's electoral precampaign at Bilbao's Plaza Nueva during Aberri Eguna, Basque Fatherland Day. "We must decide if we continue making country or let others undo it", he warned his cadres and militants, urging them to step forward amid EH Bildu's growth after Imanol Pradales's narrow 2024 win by 29,000 votes.
Esteban positioned the PNV as "the best defenders of Basque self-government" and expressed optimism for deals with EH Bildu on a "new status" with a "real qualitative leap" and legally mandating Basque for civil servants. Pradales attacked EH Bildu for failing to back key fights like unemployment benefits or airports, and demanded from Pedro Sánchez powers over Pasajes port, Social Security's economic regime, and temporary loan of Picasso's Guernica. "Did they take Franco from his tomb but can't bring 'Guernica' from Madrid?", he ironized.
In Pamplona, Arnaldo Otegi countered that EH Bildu aims to "govern", not just access governments, vowing to end "cronyism", "nepotism", and "clientelism". He envisioned an independent Euskal Herria that is secular, feminist, socialist, democratic, and ecologist, appealing to popular majorities.
