More votes and more seats for the PSE, which maintains the key to governability and guarantees the stability of the Basque executive with the PNV. All the strategic objectives set by Pedro Sánchez, therefore, have been met in these elections in Euskadi, with the banners of “coexistence, progress and stability.” And the president of the Government and leader of the PSOE is reinforced, after his latest electoral disappointments, to set course for the momentous elections in Catalonia on May 12.
“Magnificent results”, the spokesperson for the PSOE executive, Esther Peña, celebrated this Sunday night, which keep the Basque socialists in a “central” position in Euskadi, and which will allow their leader and electoral candidate, Eneko Andueza, to now decide “even more strongly” the new Basque government with the PNV. The results of the PSE, she has highlighted, are the best since 2012. “We are happy, we remain the central party of Basque politics and we are decisive,” she assured.
Peña has focused on the Popular Party, a party that in his opinion “will not have much to say or decide.” “Alberto Núñez Feijóo has made a mistake again: he announced a change in the political cycle that never came,” he stressed. And he has pointed out that by obtaining a voting percentage of only one digit – 9.2% -, the PP is a “residual” party in Euskadi, just like in Navarra and Catalonia. “Feijóo’s engine is seized,” he stressed.
“We are very calm,” they acknowledged in Moncloa already in the final stretch of the Basque campaign. Pedro Sánchez had faced this new appointment with the polls, in the intense electoral cycle of this 2024, with the purpose of achieving “reissue the strategic alliance” with the PNV in Euskadi, and by extension in the Congress of Deputies, where, however, EH Bildu is also an essential ally of the Government to keep the legislature afloat. “We are optimistic,” they highlighted on Sunday night, in view of the first exit polls, on the main floor of the PSOE headquarters on Ferraz Street, where in the absence of Sánchez – who has continued the day electoral from the Moncloa, as is customary in regional elections – María Jesús Montero, Félix Bolaños, Santos Cerdán and Esther Peña, among other socialist leaders, have met.
The intention of the socialists was that the scrutiny of the polls would allow them to reissue the coalition government with the PNV in Euskadi, and if possible that the new candidacy of Eneko Andueza would add some more seats to the ten that Idoia Mendía already achieved in 2020 One in Gipuzkoa and even another in Bizkaia. In Ferraz they highlighted the “centrality” position of the socialists in the Basque political scene, despite remaining in third position on the electoral podium and still far from the 25 seats they achieved in 2009, when Patxi López managed to be lehendakari thanks to an agreement with the Popular Party.
The accelerated scrutiny of the night, and the last-minute dance of seats, has finally confirmed twelve seats for the socialists, while the close fight between the PNV and EH Bildu has been resolved in favor of the former. The reissue of the Basque coalition government between the PNV and the PSE has thus been guaranteed.
Once the appointment with the polls in Euskadi is over, Sánchez is now heading towards the elections in Catalonia on May 12, which could have a direct impact on the course of the legislature in Spain. The stability of the mandate depends not only on the PNV and EH Bildu, but also on Junts and Esquerra. Of all. The President of the Government, who was already in Barcelona last Friday to seal the Chery-Ebro agreement at the old Nissan factory in the Zona Franca, plans to attend the start of the PSC campaign in Sabadell next Thursday afternoon. And next Sunday, after the meeting of the PSOE federal committee on Saturday in Ferraz, he will return to star in another rally with Salvador Illa in the metropolitan area of ??Barcelona.
