The night of 21 April left quite clear results around the winning and losing election parties. As the Ortuzar have pointed out, voters have given the PNV a new opportunity and it has been the most voted party in the CAV; in Araba and Gipuzkoa the victory has been for EH Bildu, but with results that can be considered historical. The PSE-EE and PP have also increased, but the 2020 results were not complicated for both sides. Vox has also won his seat in the Basque Parliament. Therefore, almost everyone earns less space from the Confederal Left, as Elkarrekin Podemos will disappear from Parliament and Sumario has gradually won the seat in Álava, being the representative of the CPU’s Jon Hernandez coalition. Very briefly, this would be the first picture of the winners and losers of the election night.

Win and lose

But winning or losing goes beyond that first photograph. The correlation of forces manifested by the parties on the election night does not have to be, nor will it have queues in the new government being formed. Thus, the PNV can be considered “winner” with four points and four lost seats, while EH Bildu, who has climbed almost five points and won six seats, can be at least “loser” in parameters of governance. In this respect, the two parties that make up the Government and which make up it have won. The PNV has achieved its objective, to have the first force in the votes and to be an absolute majority together with the PSE. The PSE-EE party has also won because winning two seats has left it in a good position for the negotiation process of the different government positions, and well, unlike the PNV, it has not received any sanctions from the voters.

The election results, therefore, have shown us a new electoral map of the CAV, and for the first time a new opportunity has been opened, since EH Bildu has managed to question the supremacy of the PNV in the nationalist forces. However, the Government that is set up will not accept the parliamentary amendment. The majority “abertzale” and majority “left” Parliament has been treated in different analyses and evaluations of electoral results. What it is to be Abertzale and what it is to be left-wing would give us a long time, but, despite this framework being approved, there was already an Abertzale majority in the previous parliament. They may be sums, but within nationalism, at least at the moment, there is no common political project. If the Left has had meeting points, which are also complex and impossible, and the two major parties in this political area confirm the political centrality of the PNV. Neither has been shown as an alternative during the election campaign. Only the Confederal Left has launched the election of a government without PNV, but in view of the results, with very little success. The idea of the PNV spending a season in the “desert” does not have much support in our political parties or among the electorate. This is what there is, and it says a lot about our political culture, and in this case “we” is the CAV, because in Navarra it is different, and another thing is the correlation of forces and political reality.

Win and lose. I've told you about parties and governability. But what project has it won? The PNV has always been right at the political centre and the strategy of EH Bildu’s election campaign has also drunk from there. It has had the opportunity to position itself as a catch all party or as an omniscient party, and it has done so at a level. There is nothing else to do with the controversy of Ortuzar and Otegi over the transfer of votes. While the Ortuzar placed the rise of EH Bildu in the weakness and transfer of votes from the Confederal Left, Otegi reminded him of the votes they received from the PNV. How do you value this? I believe that the ability that EH Bildu has had to put us at the centre is undeniable, and whoever stands best today in that political centrality will surely gain electoral victory. Also political? Adapting to the wishes of the electorate also has its risk…winning and losing again.

Orphans

There have been changes in the post-election map of the CVA, there have been party strengths and weaknesses, but parties have thrown bullets into other issues. No one has looked at those who do not participate in the ‘party of democracy’, let alone at the foundations of that political discontent. Over a third of the Basque population does not vote. This same data is of analysis, but most significantly, this abstention is not distributed homogeneously in society. By capital, the sections with the lowest average income have the highest rates of abstention. Surely these would be the ones that would “need” political and public intervention and, of course, those that least participate in electoral processes. The gap between politics, politicians and their lives is very large and expectations about what one party or another is going to improve their lives are very low. Political participation is spreading and the tendency to abstain. It does not seem, however, that the political parties are very responsible, because they have been lost, or because, in the end, they are not part of their potential electorate.

The facts of the doubts are also founded. If we look at the data, the presence of women is higher than that of men, while among those between 44 and 65 years this trend is more pronounced. There's the "Sandwich Generation," the grandparents who care for their grandchildren, and now they also have to look after their names as parents and uncles. And we know that care has a woman's face and many women caught in the blackmail of love become orphans. The public sector is still a male sector which has become apparent in the election campaign. It is not the only issue they have rejected, but it has become clear that care is a problem and a problem for women. We all know that if the harm of care were experienced by men, it would have another role in the political and electoral agenda. A society so outdated that it should be the challenge of Basque society to channel it, but the men and advisers involved in the election campaign have prioritised other issues. And to me comes the title of the book written by Onintza Irureta in connection with the strikes at the Bizkaia residence: “They were not workers, only women”.

Those suffering from school segregation have also been orphaned. Education is today the main route of social cohesion and equity, although the idea of the social lift is weakening. However, this issue has also disappeared from the electoral debate. They will have to see whether those who suffer from school segregation are those who have the worst socio-economic situation (the question is rhetoric) and, therefore, outside the fisheries area of the parties. The history of the Education Act has highlighted the priorities of the aspects. Auzolotsa, no wonder. “Elites of Hego Euskal Herria. One conclusion from the book “Analysis of Power” is that those who want a promising future in Euskal Herria have to go to private university. Elite, always elite.

All this says a lot about us, surely more than we would like. Also in a changing electoral environment, the usual losers.