The general elections in Euskadi had acquired the appearance of a second round, after the municipal and regional elections in May. EH Bildu managed two months ago to put the PNV on the ropes, although the jeltzales were able to hold their own and, finally, thanks to their pact with the PSOE, maintain a good part of their institutional power. This Sunday a very equal struggle has been experienced again, which has ended up decanting the deputy that EH Bildu has revalidated in Navarra, where the coalition has been the second force. The PNV and the Abertzale coalition tie five deputies in the Basque Autonomous Community -the same as the PSOE, very strong in Euskadi-, but EH Bildu will have a parliamentary group of six deputies thanks to that Navarrese seat. Meanwhile, Geroa Bai, the coalition in which the PNV participates in Navarra, has not been represented.
Strictly attending to the Autonomous Community of Euskadi, the generals have left a triple tie between PSOE, PNV and EH Bildu. Each of these three forces has obtained five deputies, out of a total of 18 Basque seats. The other three deputies have been divided between the PP, two, and Sumar, one.
The PSOE has been the first force in votes, achieving its best results in Euskadi in general elections since Zapatero’s historic results in 2008. The Basque socialists, who usually lose steam in the elections for the Basque Parliament and in municipal and regional elections, have emerged in these general elections and have once again shown that they have a lot to say in the Basque Country.
The battle between the PNV and EH Bildu, meanwhile, has been a very close fight that has left them with the same five seats in Euskadi and also practically tied in terms of number of votes.
The PNV, in any case, has left more than 100,000 votes since the last generals, almost 50,000 since the municipal and regional elections in May, and places its electoral ground at 275,000 votes. It is their worst electoral result in 34 years, since the general elections of 1989, after the split with Eusko Alkartasuna.
The tiebreaker in terms of seats, however, has come in Navarra, with the seat of Bel Pozueta, from EH Bildu, who has been the second force in the foral community. There, the distribution of seats is as follows: PSOE, two deputies; EH Bildu, one seat; PP, one; and UPN, one.
The PSOE, once again, has shown itself to be very strong in the foral community, taking advantage of the division on the right and making it clear, once again, that its voters welcome the political line taken by the party, both in the foral community and in Spain as a whole, of understanding with the Basques and the independence movement.
There is only one precedent in which the spectrum represented by EH Bildu has been imposed on the PNV. In 2011, the Amaiur brand (a coalition made up of independents from the nationalist left, EA, Aralar and Alternatiba) won 7 deputies (6 for Euskadi and 1 for Navarra), while the PNV got 5. Geroa Bai, the coalition in which the PNV participated, won one deputy. Amaiur was the intermediate step between Bildu (brand that united the Abertzale left, EA and Alterbatiba) and EH Bildu (the resulting coalition after the addition of Aralar).
The results of the Abertzale coalition yesterday exceed the number of votes obtained by Amaiur 12 years ago (275,000 in Euskadi, practically the same as then, and almost 59,000 in Navarra, 9,000 more than then). Therefore, EH Bildu reaches its best vote record in a general election.
For the rest, although the PP rises one seat, the general elections show that the popular Basques move in very poor records. Two seats out of a total of 18 are very few for a party that two decades ago, in the year 2000, won 7 Basque deputies.
In addition, Sumar is left with only one deputy, which contrasts with the exceptional boom that Podemos achieved in Euskadi around 2015-2016 (it reached 6 Basque deputies).
In any case, the readings of the parties in the Basque Country have been totally conditioned by the results in the whole of Spain. Considering this aspect, the protagonists of the triple tie to five seats in Euskadi -PSOE, PNV and EH Bildu- have breathed relief to see that the sum of the PP and the ultra-right will not be able to govern. Everything indicates that they will once again be protagonists in Madrid, where the focus of Basque news has shifted to a great extent. It has been the greatest joy of the night for these formations.
