All this has happened after the current president of the EBB, Andoni Ortuzar, cleared the way for Aitor Esteban, https://www.argia.eus/albistea/ortuzar-ez-da-eajren-buru-berria-izango-eta-bidea-libre-utzi-dio-estebani and for this the main argument put forward by Ortuzar on the table has been the “risk of division of the party”. And one doesn’t see such a big difference between one and the other, but some experts say yes... and others say no, whatever the process is well laid out.

To begin with, Enric Juliana, deputy director of La Vanguardia, says that Jesús María Aznar has given a hand to Aitor Esteban. Once you read their analysis, you can quickly see the nuances, but the idea of help remains on its feet. On the one hand, he explains what we already knew, that Iñigo Urkullu was not at all satisfied when the leadership of the PNV closed the doors for his fourth term as President of the Basque Government and other significant people of Bizkaia.

According to Jualiana, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, finds it difficult to understand each other with the PNV more than with the Junts, and is annoyed by the path that the PNV takes with the PSOE, which has been guided and sustained by Ortuzar, and which Esteban has carried out daily since the Spanish Congress.

Last week José Mariá Aznar wanted to give a hand to Feijóo and the former leader of the PP was in Bilbao, very linked to this context for Jualiana, who not only claimed the foralist character of the PP, but also accused the PNV of the rise of the EH Bil: “They smelled the division,” says Juliana. They saw a space (...) and five days later Ortuzar stepped back for Esteban.”

Iñaki Iriondo de Gara has also been following this race for the management of jeltzales for a long time and offers interesting data to better position the competition. For example, Ortuzar won in the first round, yes, but only 20% of the nationalist militancy voted. The vote for Esteban has been moved by a sector of Bizkaia, and behind this move you can see the hand of Itxaso Atutxa –former president of the BBB–, wife of Esteban, among others. After the arrival of the thesis: they think in a similar way, and it is a power struggle, now it will be necessary to see the consequences of this both internally and externally.

But there are also other approaches, such as the blog El Rincón del Protestón, which follows the life of jeltzales from within, managed by Iñigo Landa. This follows with great precision the internal life of the PNV, as well as the electoral process, and sees Ortuzar as a great obstacle to the revitalization of the party and also Esteban. What is Ortuzar in his vision? Inbreeding, nepotism, being above others, arrogance, total control of the Flame... In his opinion, the process was well cooked between the two: “Let’s not fool ourselves, Ortuzar and Esteban are sides of the same coin.”