The wide advantage of 10 deputies that the PNV obtained over Bildu in the Basque elections of July 12, 2020 has evaporated four years later. The nationalist party not only prevails over conservative nationalism in the province of Gipuzkoa, where in the previous elections the difference in favor of the party that governs Euskadi was barely 1.17 points, but it also achieves something unthinkable very recently. : rise to first position also in the Álava constituency.
The PNV saves the furniture and manages to ensure that the duel with the Abertzale left ends in a draw thanks to its survival instinct in the Bizkaia district and in the capital, Bilbao, although here also Bildu notably cuts the still wide advantage of the formation led in this time by the more than likely future lehendakari Imanol Pradales.
The PNV has most likely been harmed by the increase in participation compared to the 2020 elections, conditioned by the pandemic. To date, the nationalist party had won 11 of the 12 regional elections held in the Basque Country since 1980. It only missed victory in the third, in 1986, marked by the split within the PNV that led to the appearance on the stage of Eusko Alkartasuna, although on that occasion the Basque Nationalist Party, which obtained two fewer deputies than the PSE-PSOE, remained the leading political force in terms of votes. On this occasion the PNV loses seats in the three provinces: two in Álava and one in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa.
Bildu’s gain is greater than the PNV’s loss. The nationalist left takes advantage of the free fall of the formations located to the left of the socialists (from the 6 parliamentarians of Podemos four years ago to the only one that Sumar manages to reach in the province of Álava). The formation led in these Basque elections by Pello Otxandiano is rising in the three constituencies and in each of them adds two more seats to those it already had.
The socialists, after the resounding failure of the last Galician elections, take a breath of fresh air in the Basque Country, where they will once again be decisive in guaranteeing governability. The PSE-PSOE holds its own against the Popular Party perfectly and remains in third position in the three provinces. The formation that in these elections has entrusted its fate to Eneko Andueza is the king of regularity in these elections: four deputies in Álava, four in Bizkaia and four in Gipuzkoa, with the conquest of one seat in the latter two with respect to the appointment with the polls from four years ago.
Yesterday’s results confirm that the Popular Party continues to have one of its electoral black holes in the Basque Country. It is true that the PP improves its 2020 results and, furthermore, it does so by participating in the elections alone (on the previous occasion it did so in coalition with Ciudadanos) but its progress is not very relevant, at least in terms of seats. , just one more in Álava, the province in which the popular ones, historically, tend to obtain their best records.
Another of the notable notes of the election day in the Basque Country is the decomposition of the formations located ideologically to the left of the PSOE, partly due to the advance of Bildu and the resistance of the socialists, but above all due to the Cainite division in their ranks, which ends with another enormous failure. It should be little consolation for Sumar to have defeated Podemos in this battle of bloodless forces and enter the autonomous Parliament thanks to the only seat obtained in the province of Álava. In any case, the sum of Sumar and Podemos does not even reach 6% of the votes cast yesterday in Euskadi. Also with its only elected representative in Álava, Vox avoids becoming an extra-parliamentary formation.
In the three provincial capitals, disparity in results. In Bilbao no one disputes the hegemony of the PNV, which is more than 17 points ahead of Bildu (seven less, however, than four years ago). On the other hand, the fight for victory in San Sebastián was very tight, which was resolved in favor of the PNV by the minimum (only 0.5 percentage points separated it from Bildu). Where there was a surprise is in Vitoria. The capital of Alava, which four years ago clearly opted for the PNV, has seen the triumph of the nationalist left by a margin of just over 2,500 votes.
