EH-Bildu will have to continue cultivating the “strategic patience” promoted by its general coordinator, Arnaldo Otegi, to reach Ajuria Enea, based on the many possibilities they see, for generational reasons among others, of ending up being the first Basque political force and govern. With last night’s election results, the nationalist party remains on the verge of overtaking the PNV in seats, and further away from victory in votes (about 27,000), and will have to endure with perseverance another term in the opposition of the Basque Parliament.
Pello Otxandiano’s candidacy was neither the force with the most votes nor did it manage to add more seats than the PNV. But the tie between 27 parliamentarians, six more than those obtained in 2020 by Otegi himself, allows them to boast of having put the PNV in more trouble than ever, a merit that, although it remains on a symbolic level, leaves an obvious mark. that Basque politics has entered a new phase.
Bildu is consolidating itself as a left-wing sovereigntist alternative in the Basque Country and has pinned its hopes on the growing support it receives among Basques under 40 years of age, so they trust that the achievement they did not achieve last night will occur sooner rather than later. The role that the party has acquired in the Congress of Deputies has contributed to this roadmap, competing with the PNV for the title of party capable of achieving things in Madrid. An example of this is the Housing law agreed with the Government – ??and with ERC – exactly one year ago.
Nor is the value conferred by the fact that a party like EH Bildu has grown incessantly at the polls since the end of ETA, and the little – or no – impact that Otxandiano’s setback would have had in the middle of the campaign with the definition of the terrorist band, which if anything served to mobilize the PNV electorate.
The final tie in seats with the Jeltzales has a person responsible, the seat that in the last phase of the scrutiny they lost in favor of the PSE-EE of Eneko Andueza for Álava, a province that was key to the electoral outcome and in which Bildu ended. prevailing by eight seats (29.4% of votes) over seven from the PNV (26.9%).
In fact, Otxandiano’s candidacy won in two of the three provinces, also winning in Gipuzkoa by eleven seats (40.4%), nine points behind the PNV (31.7%).
Bildu celebrated the results almost as a victory, but the procession went internally. The Abertzales did not expect the result of the Socialists, who added two seats to those obtained in 2020, but joy also broke out in the Ensanche market in Bilbao, the party’s headquarters last night, just 300 meters from Sabin Etxea, the headquarters of the PNV.
Otxandiano appeared once the scrutiny was exhausted alongside Otegi to highlight “the best results in the history of the sovereign left”, showing that “four years ago there was a hegemonic force – the PNV – but now there is a competition between two and that It means that the sovereign force is in the center of the political map,” he remarked.
The candidate claimed victory in Álava and Gipuzcoa, and the good results in municipalities such as Vitoria, Eibar, Zumárraga or Urretxu, and pointed out that the next Basque Parliament “will be the most nationalist and there will be a majority on the left, and that has to be noted.” .
For Bildu, the political map of Euskadi “has been transformed.” The result inaugurates “a new political cycle”, a “new political reality” in which, like the sirimiri, which soaks in little by little, “we will continue working,” they promised.
