Summer heat brings with it a shortage of news. In the field of political play there is a kind of tacit agreement to slow down the pace in the summer months. Summer snakes are well known, as are the rare events that are used in the media for filling. Well, this summer that we have in the sand hills has been very different.

We must thank lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, for the cessation of eta violence. The political parties presented their lists in August, which has once again brought media attention to the “Euskal gentuza”. However, we cannot deny that the tragicomedy of government formation in Madrid continues to hijack the agenda of Euskal Herria. In addition to making the decision to advance the electoral appointment conditional, the campaign of the Basque parties is based on the antithesis towards Spain.

On the one hand, the PNV’s message is not going to be very different from what was used in the Spanish elections. First of all, the slogan Euskadi gives shelter to everything: While Spain remains, Euskadi advances, has its own needs and a differentiated form of management, and the PNV is the one that can best defend these interests here and in Madrid. To this must be added the mantra of “stability”. On the plot hit by the crisis, the right has chosen to present stability as a desirable and positive situation, matching political stability with economic progress and the well-being of peoples. The mandate of Urkullu is built on that basis, it has not taken any significant steps, but it has projected that the situation is stable, so it is stable and good. The fear of losing this balance will be a tool to activate the PNV’s votes, both in dealing with the precarious situation in Madrid and the alternative of local government (ghost of EH Bildu and Podemos).

On the other hand, EH Bildu is also on the path of the antithesis under the slogan Hemen bai. In four words: Change is possible in Euskal Herria, in Spain not. That message, of course, positions the sovereign coalition with Elkarrekin Podemos. However, the Left has problems, both in the Basque Country and in Europe, in communicating what this change means, which is to counter this false stability based on the exploitation and inequality of the humble classes the model of a more just social organization. The music group Berri Txarrak says that balance isn't worth when you're on land. Stability, too.

However, at the pole of change, we must add a new aspect that comes from Madrid: Elkarrekin Podemos. In our case Podemos is an electoral brand above all, a brand built on simple and marketable axes: new vs. old, down vs. up, people vs. casta, etc. With the auptioning of the media, its strength as a brand has been sufficiently demonstrated here. Thus, we were more than one surprised by the election of the lehendakari candidate. Pili Zabala is a person closely linked to the Basque conflict, which may be a symbol of coexistence, but which is by no means consistent with such brand building. It seems that in the vote fishing they have chosen a political spectrum close to EH Bildu, rather than a wave of votes that may come from the abstention or from the PSE-EE. That seems somewhat premeditated. In the messages we've heard so far, Zabala has opted for the path of indefinition, but indefinition defines it a lot, and more in our own.

In addition to what will happen with the candidacy of Arnaldo Otegi (it is sad that it will then continue to do so), the campaign will focus on that tripartite axis, because the best prediction of the constitutionalist parties is to be the crutch of the PNV. In any case, they do not have to match the axes of the campaign with the results of breaks. Or yes? That is the question.