Aitor Esteban says goodbye to Congress claiming politics: « This is much more than noise » | Spain
Aitor Esteban’s face contracted in a clear gesture of repress Mariano Rajoy made him on one occasion), but you do take all our respect. ”Shortly before, the PSOE benches, of the Catalan independentistas and also of their Basque rivals of EH Bildu had standing up to cheer the spokesman for the PNV and thus recognize 21 years of parliamentary work, which now leaves for Assume the presidency of his party. In the PP the farewell was more shy: they barely applaud, sitting on the seat, Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Cuca Gamarra. Vox did not start the slightest gesture.
Esteban’s farewell had already had a first chapter, on February 27, When Pedro Sánchez dedicated his recognition after what was the last question to the president of the PNV spokesman in a control session. But Esteban still kept a last intervention in the plan Sánchez appearance to analyze the international situation. And, after five hours of debate, he took advantage of his final counterpart to say goodbye and joke about these long weeks of farewell: « I know that some of you thought I would never leave, but I leave. I have taken, but I leave. »
Esteban confessed that he had to resort to Session diary To remember what had been his first intervention in the Chamber, when he arrived in 2004, with 42 years, in the middle of the Atocha killing and the unexpected electoral triumph of the PSOE. Its premiere in the speaker tribune occurred in a debate on one of the many education laws that have been staying the road.
In these 21 years, 12 of them as a spokesman for his group, Esteban has won the Emilio Castelar award for the best speaker granted by parliamentary journalists and became one of the deputies more respected by all political options and by the informants themselves. In his farewell, the Vizcaíno parliamentarian did not forget anyone, apart from politicians and journalists: the lawyers, the ujieres, the police, the doctors, the taquígrafas, the employees of the hospitality services … « most of those who are here are good people, » he said, to add laughter: « There is also some bad … as in all parts. »
His last political message wanted to direct the young people: « This is much more than the noise they hear and see on television. I ask you not to turn your back on politics. » Then he added the words that, as he said, have been the « north » of his political activity: « Gora Euskadi Askatuta (Long live Euskadi) ”.
« We are going to miss him, » said the president, Francina Armengol. Sánchez also, in his final speech, reiterated the praise of his negotiating mood, while « rocky and relentless. » With a smile, the president promised that in this legislature there will be a new law of official secrets, one of the demands that most stubbornly Esteban has been claiming over the years. Both melt into a hug.
Hours before, in the first part of the debate, he had been the spokesman for ERC, Gabriel Rufián, who gave his tribute to the Basque colleague in the galley. « It has inspired me a lot, » Rufián admitted, while Ironized with the « rage » that he sometimes felt when he looked at his dialectical resources: « I will not like everything you say, but I will always like how you say it. » Esteban’s face contracted in another grimace of contained emotion.
