Imanol Pradales, PNV candidate, attacked with pepper spray while leaving a rally in Barakaldo Spanish

A 49-year-old man has been arrested. Imanol Pradales leaves the hospital and attends the debate on Basque television with the other six candidates for 'lehendakari'

A person has attacked the PNV lehendakari candidate, Imanol Pradales, with pepper spray. The attack took place after seven thirty in the afternoon this Tuesday, when Pradales was leaving the rally he had given in the Biscayan town of Barakaldo to go to the ETB headquarters. Pradales has been treated at the Cruces hospital and is currently heading to Basque public television, where he plans to participate starting at 10:15 p.m. tonight in the electoral debate with the rest of the candidates for the Lehendakaritza.

The attack on Pradales was recounted at the beginning of his speech by the president of the PNV EBB, Andoni Ortuzar, at that same electoral event. As he explained, when the lehendakari candidate "was leaving to prepare for the ETB debate, a person approached him and sprayed him with pepper spray and they had to take him to Cruces to clean his eyes."

The Ertzaintza, minutes later, confirmed that the attack was carried out by a 49-year-old man who is in custody. The individual threw pepper spray at Pradales when he was going to get into the car that was going to take him to the Basque television headquarters in Bilbao, next to the San Mamés football field. A companion of Pradales has also been affected by the attack and has required medical assistance.

Although Ortuzar has called to "not worry" about Pradales' condition, he has shared his concern about these events with the supporters present at the rally. "We don't know what it is, but in any case, I think that this type of behavior, this type of events, has to lead us as a society to reflect on whether all of this that we are experiencing, of stretching, of tension, of creating division , to create tension, is the way for a society like the Basque one. Of course, in the opinion of the PNV, no, that is not our way," he stated.

The PP candidate for Lehendakaritza, Javier de Andrés, has expressed his "most resounding and energetic condemnation" of the attack suffered by his electoral rival. "The condition of Imanol Pradales is pending after the pepper spray attack of which he was a victim this afternoon. I trust that he will be perfectly well as soon as possible. My most resounding and energetic condemnation," Javier de Andrés wrote on social networks.

The President of the Government has expressed himself in the same sense. "I want to convey all my support and solidarity to Imanol Pradales. In democracy there is no room for aggression. Never. To anyone. I wish him to recover soon so that I can continue with the final stretch of the electoral campaign," Pedro Sánchez wrote in a message distributed on social networks.