Trusting in the street environment, we would not know that in a few days’ time we will have elections in Iparralde again. The discharge, on 20 and 27 June, has passed two elections: from the department of the Atlantic Pyrenees and from the region of New Aquitaine.

The departmental council has a particularly important role in the social sphere, with this institution being responsible for children, old age, disability and social assistance. In the time of COVID-19 in which we live and in the context of the economic and social crisis that this entails, the policies that vote on it will have a great influence on the daily lives of citizens. As for the region, its policies are concentrated in different sectors, although the assemblies are held far from the Northern Basque Country, they have a great influence on our daily life.

In this regard, despite the fact that the members' assemblies are held both in Pau and in Bordeaux, left-wing nationalists are addressing these institutions, putting all their forces to obtain elected positions in the Department's Council. In fact, in this period they are not presented as in 2010 for the region, nor are they issued voting mandates as in 2015. The main reason is that the presence on the ground, the closeness and the capacity to reach their claims are not guaranteed in an excessively large region, where in the end only 3,000 km2 of the 84,000 km2 of New Aquitaine are Ipar Euskal Herria.

Nicolás Blain, director of the EH Bai coalition, says the department’s votes are “local elections”. The Department is divided into cantons and each of them votes for the local representative (in the Northern Basque Country there are twelve cantonments and in Bearn fifteen, two councillors appointed by cantonments). EH Bai appears in all twelve areas and warns that “it is the only candidature present in all cantons.” The members of the coalition decided to present themselves to the department’s votes at the general assembly held in November last year.

However, the PNV will not be present in these votes or in those at the regional level, which in the canton of Biarritz is presented in the centrist candidate Générations Biarritz to the Christophe Lamboley-Depoire party.

The elections are making it clear that the leftist Abertzales have increasing weight in the institutions, whether in the municipalities, in the Basque Country Hiria Elkargoa or in the department. 20 years ago they got the first counselor in Pau: The azkaratearra Jean-Mixel Galant was imposed on behalf of Abertzaleen Batasuna in the canton of Baigorri. Seven years later, Alain Iriarte won at the Capitality, presenting himself as an independent Abertzale and repeating the victory in 2015, on behalf of EH Bai in that period (then deceased in 2017 when he took the seat of vice-president at the college to prevent the accumulation of charges).

Certain competences with request for Basque repatriation

You can also get a representation in this period. If they win, they will be involved in departmental politics, but they will also support the Northern Basque Country, with the aim of obtaining more power for the Basque Country Hiria Elkargoa. “If you look at the school and the department, sometimes they have the same competencies and that repetition doesn’t make sense. From Pau we will work to ensure that these competencies and the budgets allocated to them are allocated to the college,” says Blain. Tourism, cross-border relations, language policy... there are several areas of work that work both from Pau and Baiona. However, they are aware that “the College is not yet able to represent the Department”, but EH Bai’s leadership details: “At the departmental level or at the Colegio Urbano Vasco? Where are we most efficient? We will look at areas... if acting from our territory makes more sense, then we would like to reach agreements, so that competition and the budget are made available to the college”.

But for this they will need elected positions in Pau. As they get there? We look at the twelve cantonments and yet there are some who are about to add the victory. First of all, we have the Hendaia South Coast cantonment as a way to follow closely. The left has been the main one for a long time, but this time the advisor Hendaia Kotte Ecenarro will not be present. Only three municipalities, Hendaia, Biriatou and Urruña, join this cantonment and it is recalled that in Urruña the nationalists won the house of the people, that in Biriatu was a candidacy of nationalists and that in Hendaia Ecenarro and the nationalists work together. On the other hand, in 2015 there were good results in Uztaritze-Errobi (44.4% in the second round) and this year also good results are expected, seeing that the Abertzale vote grew in the local votes in this area.

What will happen in the so-called Monte Vasco, which encompasses a large part of Zuberoa and Baja Navarra, and in Bidaxune-Oztibarre-Amikuze? The directors of both have been in power for some time – since 1994, the right wing Pepela Mirande and the center-right, also president of the department, Jean-Jacques Lasserre, since 1982. The nationalists hope that the desire for a definitive dismissal will prevail among the voters. On 20 June they would like to position themselves as the first left-wing force to compete in the second round with the former advisors. Both on one and the other, they were already on the second lap in 2015.

To move to the second round, it is necessary to obtain 12.5% of those enrolled. A large abstention is expected (in 2015 it was 47.20% at the departmental level and may be even higher in this period). “That the Abertzales have the militant base negatively insured our vote? I'm not sure -- we're equally less excited, but we're not totally protected," Blain says. Despite the fact that in 2015 they went to the second round in five cannigos and achieved good results, they only achieved victory in one, winning Iriarte for the second time.

Historically, the department of the Atlantic Pyrenees has almost always been on the right: only the left led the 2009-2015 mandate. One more year is strongly planned for the right, because the right-wing and center-right parties are presented together – at the moment the far right is not part of the RN union, and it should be noted that in the eleven cantonments of the Northern Basque Country we have the far right among the candidates. In front of us we have once again divided the left and it can be thought that this position will make way to the right.

In the region, however, he is left in power and Alain Rousset, a socialist with presidency since 1998, is re-introduced. The surveys triumph again, with a point of difference very close to the right end RN.