Yesterday Sumar achieved his objective, which was none other than to enter the Basque Parliament even if it was, as it has been, by the minimum: a single seat despite bringing together in a single brand formations such as Ezker Anitza-Izquierda Unida, Equo-Berdeak and Más Euskadi.
Nobody in the party would have signed a year ago – just after its official launch in Magariños – such a poor result considering that the non-independence space to the left of the PSOE obtained six representatives in the previous elections.
But after the setback in Galicia in February, due to which the confederal group did not obtain a single deputy, and given the recent tensions between the coalition partners to configure the European lists, on the verge of derailing the brand, in the party led by Yolanda Díaz smile for having avoided the tragedy that would have entailed obtaining a new donut.
Even more so considering that Podemos has been left out of the chamber eight years after being the most voted force in Euskadi in the 2016 general elections. A disintegration almost as fast as its emergence.
The proof that Sumar narrowly avoided disaster is the fact that it will be his candidate for Araba, Jon Hernández Hidalgo, and not his head of the list, Alba García, who will represent the party in the Autonomous Chamber after the second did not achieve the seat to which he aspired for Bizkaia.
A good part of Sumar’s result has been due, precisely, to not repeating some of the mistakes made in Galicia, whose campaign was highly discussed internally.
For this 21-J, García has focused the campaign on the local and not the national. Including in its agenda many events with social groups and unions, such as the one held together with Díaz with the workers of Anbulantziak borrokan –Ambulances in struggle– for an improvement in their working conditions, and dosing the appearance of its five ministers who, in the recent autonomous elections in Galicia, proved to be counterproductive as they were seen as paratroopers who came from the capital to tell Galicians what and how to vote.
“The result shows that Sumar has a present, but, above all, a future. We are going to continue building to be increasingly stronger in all the towns and cities of Euskadi,” García promised in his first analysis after the count.
For its part, Podemos, with a low-profile campaign – in the next elections in Catalonia it has directly renounced participating – entrusted everything to its candidate, Miren Gorrotxategi. But neither her good performance in the debates, nor the support of former second vice president Pablo Iglesias, were enough.
With all this, and despite Sumar’s seat of honor, the space for which both formations compete has fallen by five seats. And in Euskadi they had it easier than in other communities given that the Basque electoral law lowers the minimum to obtain parliamentary representation to 3%.
While, if they had participated in a coalition, and based on the results obtained in 2020, the nearly 69,000 votes obtained separately last night would have allowed them to obtain six seats.
The recount of the Galician and Basque ballot boxes has shown that the internecine wars that both parties, until recently partners, recurrently wage, have spread from Madrid to all the territories and have divided their voters. And this absence of a reference formation in the space has meant that the useful vote of the left in this campaign has gone massively towards EH Bildu.
