Tomorrow the elections of the Basque Basketball Federation will take place. Germán Monge, who has led the reins these four years, faces Luis Mari Sautu. There are 19 votes contributed by Bizkaia and as many from Álava, while Gipuzkoa reserves 12. Here may be the key. Monge went through the microphones of Radio Bilbao.
Are your votes in Bizkaia perfectly tied?
Yes, I’d say all but one.
Does Bilbao Basket support you?
It’s not a club I’m talking about.
Is it not going to give more data?
I must not give them. The one from Bizkaia who has told me that he is going to vote for the other candidacy, I trust I will get it back. Votes from the three territories will enter the ballot box, and also in a majority way, enough to win.
Why are there so many votes from another territory with fewer chips?
The statutes of the Federation and the Basque Sports Law, establish that the minimum 78 percent of the representatives of the Assembly must be from clubs.
And that is why Álava has so much power?
In Álava there are more clubs, because there are a lot of groups, regional … more or less mature people. When it comes to distributing representatives, that is the reason that so many correspond to them, by clubs. In licenses, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Álava are in this order. It is arithmetic.
He has Luis Mari Sautu in front of him.
I’ve had it next door. He is a member of the assembly and its president, Luismi Corres, an ex officio member of the board of directors of the Basque Federation by statutes.
They have allied themselves against you.
I criticized after reading an interview of mine that it is impudent to say that I had worked hard and achieved little. I said that few merits, I work a lot. So everyone who interprets.
Aguado, an old enemy in the struggle for the presidency of the Spanish Federation, encourages the opposite candidacy.
The candidate I am facing is Luis Mari Sautu. The other is Germán Monge. I think you have to talk about programs and ideas, and the reasons why I am presenting. Especially for that Biscayan voter who at the moment opts for the other candidacy.
His rival accuses him of not listening to anyone.
It is surprising, it will be for an electoral issue, all the decisions of importance have had a majority agreement and many, unanimously. I repeat that Corres is a member of the board of directors and there were more from Alava on that board of directors. When I took office four years ago there was an important division in Gipuzkoa and also in Álava. We form a directive participated by the three territories, that is why I say that it is within the norm in an electoral struggle.
Why do you want to continue in this troubled time?
When the slopes are steeper, there I need gear and effort. As the situation is complicated, we have the enthusiasm and the necessary drive to continue working for Basque basketball, because we believe that we have enough experience and we feel supported by the majority of Basque basketball, and hopefully by the majority of the voters of the assembly of the Federation. I have not intervened in the three territorial lists to form the general assembly, what I have done has been to work with my team as honestly as we can, and if we are accused of working hard, bless it.
But is he presidential or not?
The statutes, which I have not chosen, say that the territorial ones have to be elected with an open or closed plate, in the Basque one only votes for the president. The rules of the game themselves say that it is a presidential federation, and I have tried to flee from that and that is why I have formed an assembly not as the statutes of president treasurer and general secretary say but of 16 people, with director of arbitration, secretary, the three territorial presidents whom I have made vice-presidents when before there was only one …
In other words, he rejects it …
It’s not understood. I have taken measures to escape presidentialism, which is not the style I like. We have been able to fail in not having united all of Basque basketball around a project, the basketball of all Basques. The point is to convince that this project belongs to everyone, what should backbone us is the passion for basketball, beyond disputes of territorialities and personal egos. It is about deciding between a candidacy that tries to modernize the structures and adapt to the new times or another that looks back and lives anchored in the past with a message that past times were better, even commenting that they have almost led to dragged to present himself to the Federation because he was going to retire to his field with his animals in Murgia, where he is certainly a councilor.
Talk about the program.
I summarize it. We want to develop the second strategic plan of action for the period 21-24. We have already done the first and have implemented it. An equality plan that is submitted for the approval of the assembly and that puts in writing and with commitment what we have already been doing these three years, in which by the way I have also been accused of not supporting women’s basketball.
What else?
Create a plural and participatory board of directors, loyal and committed to making strategic decisions of interest to all basketball. Fourth, open a channel of more direct communication with the clubs participating in the competitions, beyond their representatives in the assembly, which by the way many times are captive assemblies directed by the territorial presidents, for the creation of commissions and forums for direct participation. , and more so now than with COVID, you have to go down to the mud and talk with the participating clubs in each category, and ask each one what they want. And, finally, to advance the work begun in the normalization and use of bilingualism in the federative sphere and, why not, the search and recognition of the official position and the international participation of the absolute national teams of Euskadi in the image and likeness of our own. soccer buddies.
