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INPRIMATU
Elections to the Basque Parliament 2024 - ANALYSIS
The official “change” election campaign is underway, right now?
  • This Friday the official election campaign of the Basque Parliament starts on 21 April. According to surveys, the results between PNV and EH Bildu will be more equal than ever. That is why change is one of the most widely used words in this electoral initiation.
Xabier Letona Biteri @xletona 2024ko apirilaren 05
Argazkia: EH Bildu

But one thing is that in terms of the number of parliamentarians, not in votes, EH Bildu can get ahead of the PNV, and another thing is the change of government. These EH Bildu winnings don't come out of nowhere, because the upward trend of the last election is continuous. And in the case of nationalists, the trend is the reverse. But it has not yet happened, the nationalists have been very high and the elections of the Basque Parliament have always been the most prosperous for them.

Trends are there and reality is there as well. After the end of ETA, Bildu achieved very good results in the 2011 municipal elections and the Amaiur coalition in the 2011 Spanish general elections. Therefore, in this new political climate, EH Bildu used the climate of overcoming the PNV in the 2012 Basque Parliament elections.

The Abertzale left then got Laura Mintegi the best result of his election. With Maialen Iriarte not so good in 2016 and 2020, but good. In the three, the “change” had a great impact, but it did not occur: in the three, the PNV drew EH Bildu more than 100,000 votes. So, and feet on the ground, it's not easy to imagine Pello Otxandiano before Imanol Pradales. But everything indicates that it will be closer than ever.

And even if it wins, the real change of government is in the hands of the PSE, which could actually have happened earlier if the Socialists had wanted it. But they have not wanted it, and at best, generously, they have been the social partners of the neoliberal policies of the last decades of the NIP. Furthermore, they do not hide it: for nationalists and socialists, this pact has given stability and well-being to half the Basques. They are proud to sell that, for example, in the UN ranking on welfare, Euskadi is ahead of Canada. However, the nature of this wealth hardly emerges. So, even if I win EH Bildu, why enter with him in other more complex areas?

But in addition to the PSE, there is also PSOE, and there are other bathtubs. The most important is the significant path that EH Bildu is taking in moderation and governance. The Aberri Eguna was made clear by Arnaldo Otegi in his conference for the Taconera de Pamplona: governability, governability and governability.

In the Spanish Government, EH Bildu has been an indispensable figure of Pedro Sánchez in recent years, and both forces have taken very important steps of collaboration in the Government of Navarra and in the City Hall of Pamplona. Therefore, why not in the CAPV? These winds are favorable to change of government, although, according to surveys, citizens prefer a government between the PNV and the PSE than that of EH Bildu. Well, but this last option no longer scares anyone in Basque society. Since the mandate of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa in the 2011-2015 legislature, EH Bildu received important subjects of what cannot be done and done.

The importance of the other forces has nothing to do with the past. For decades the Basque political system in general has been a system of four parties, the two strongest in nationalism and close to them the Spaniards PSE and PP-UPN. With the end of ETA this system broke and the bipartisanship of PNV and EH Bildu has prevailed. The true balance of both is the PSE in the Basque Country, but in a complex situation it may be the PP of the PNV. For many years, their voters have been deeply burdened by the Jeltzales poll, especially in the elections to the Basque Parliament. They had confidence in Iñigo Urkullu, unlike the PNV.

As for Sumar and Podemosis, the knives have put in the air better than anyone the old theatrical play of the bloody historical division of the left, which seems to phagocyte the social discourses of EH Bildu. But if EH Bildu and the PSE finally reached an agreement, they would probably encourage them.