In the last municipal elections, the EH Bildu coalition also won the highest number of votes (4 councillors); however, through a last-minute plot, Navarre Suma –3 councilors– has given the mayor to the socialist José Ignacio Eguizabal –2 councilors– who presented himself. In Navarre, Sartagudo is known as the widowed people, since in the Civil War 84 residents died, after the left front won the elections in 1936. Among those who were shot there was the then socialist mayor and five other ediles, including two ediles.

How do you interpret the help of Navarra Add to the PSN?

It was the vote of fear. Navarre Suma feared that our project would stabilize in Sartagudo. The EH Bildu project was rooted in Sartagudo and feared its development. In the last elections we have been improving our results considerably, eight years ago we received 165 votes, four years ago 227 votes, and 337 in the last elections. They knew that a new mandate was going to stabilize our social and popular project in the South of Navarra, and they were terrified. It has also been a vote in favour of the restitution of the regime, the bipartisanship of PSN and UPN, and of UPN.

Do you think it is part of a more general pact?

Of course, too. It seems obvious to me that Chivite and the PSN want Javiaer Esparza to be the president of the Basque Autonomous Community. They do not want the presidency, but they do not dare to repeat what happened eight years ago. They do not want to repeat the month of August and they want to throw the ball into our court so that we do not give them the abstention. They want to accuse us of not carrying out that "development government" they call. If there were no pact, what we have seen in Sartagudo would not have happened in other countries, and it has been repeated everywhere. The order came from above.

Do you think that in this way it is legitimate to get the mayor?

If it's been legal, mathematics shows that two plus three is five, and if that's more than four. UPN's say it's not the first time in Sartagudo the first force loses the mayor's office. It is true that in the last elections we were the second force after we were ten votes from UPN, and we received the mayor. Now it will not send the first list, but it will not send the second. The Mayor shall be the least voted list. It is legal, but it has dubious democratic legitimacy.

Would you accept the baton if you had received the votes?

I spoke to the PSN candidate on Thursday. We knew that UPN would not get the mayor, that was not our fear, but what happened at the end; that is, that the right would vote for the PSN candidate. We explain this on the two occasions when we have met. At the first meeting the Socialist candidate asked us to be reassured, that this would not happen, and on Thursday I raised it again in the Mayor’s office. "I have to know if I have to make a meeting with me," I told him then, and he told me not to worry, not to look for anything, that on Monday I would continue to be my office. If that had happened, he added, I would be a brown man with the two councillors because I could not get the work through, and I would also be in the hands of the three right-wing councillors. I, who know the situation in Sartagudo, would certainly not accept the stick.

Did you expect this play?

I tell you that in mathematics we know that two plus three are five, by the way we have learned that if the PSN has the opportunity to play you, it will do so. The people were afraid of it. Some people said that they would not dare, that the people would be attacked on top of them, but they have dared. These days I have received a lot of messages from the Sartagudo, saying that injustice is terrible and that we did not deserve it. We are told that we leave the City Hall firmly and that we have set the very high limit. I also know that inside the PSN there are people who are very sad and very disgusted, and that the big party is being made by the UPN. The PSN has given them invitations for the banquet, but the banquet is UPN and not UPN.

How will your opposition work be?

In this legislature we have learned that the opposition cannot be carried out with a stick on the wheels, because in the end that stick is broken. That has been the case for the last four years with us, and when the elections have come the people have rewarded our work. We have a well-internalized lesson and we will continue to work for the people, always according to our possibilities. I met the new mayor and told him that we will continue to help the people, because a project that demands social change goes beyond the institutions.