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 Abertzale formation is on the verge of overtaking the PNB in ??seats, and further from victory in votes (about 27,000), and will have to persevere through another legislature in the opposition of the Basque Parliament.
The candidacy of Pello Otxandiano was neither the force with the most votes nor did it win more seats than the PNB. But the tie to 27 parliamentarians, 6 more than those obtained in 2020 by Otegi himself, allows them to boast of having put the PNB in ??more difficulties than ever, a merit that, although it remains in a symbolic sphere, leaves the clear sign that Basque politics has entered a new phase.
Bildu is consolidating itself as a left-wing sovereignist alternative in the Basque Country, and is pinning its hopes on the growing support it receives among Basques younger than 40, and they trust that the success they failed to achieve last night will happen sooner or later The role played by the formation of the Congress of Deputies has contributed to this roadmap, competing with the PNB for the title of party capable of achieving things in Madrid. An example of this is the Housing law agreed with the Central Government – and with ERC – exactly one year ago.
Nor is the value conferred by the fact that a party like Bildu has grown incessantly in the polls since the end of ETA, and the little – or no – impact that Otxandiano’s stumble in the middle of the campaign with the definition of the terrorist band, which perhaps served to mobilize the PNB electorate.
The final tie in seats with the Jeltzales is responsible, the seat they lost in the last phase of the scrutiny in favor of Eneko Andueza’s PSE-EE for Álaba, a province that was key to the outcome of the election and in which Bildu ended up winning eight seats (29.4% of votes), compared to PNB’s seven (26.9%).
In fact, Otxandiano’s candidacy prevailed in two of the three provinces because he also won in Gipuzkoa with 11 seats (40.4%), compared to 9 for the PNB (31.7%).
Bildu celebrated the results almost as a victory, but the procession went on inside. The Abertzales did not expect the result of the Socialists, who added two seats to those they obtained in 2020, but the joy was unleashed anyway in the Mercado del Ensanche in Bilbao, headquarters of the formation last night, about 300 meters away of Sabin Etxea, the headquarters of the PNB.
Otxandiano appeared once the scrutiny was exhausted with Otegi to highlight “the best results in the history of the sovereignist left” and made it clear that “four years ago there was a hegemonic force – the PNB -, but now there there is a competition between the two and this means that the sovereignist force is at the center of the political map”, he remarked.
The candidate claimed the victory in Álaba and Gipuzkoa and the good results in municipalities such as Vitoria-Gasteiz, Eibar, Zumarraga or Urretxu, and pointed out that the next Basque Parliament “will be the most nationalist and there will be a majority of leftists, and this it must be noticed”.
According to Bildu, the political map of Euskadi “has been transformed” definitively. The result of this 21-A inaugurates “a new political cycle”, a “new political reality” in which, like the rain, which soaks little by little, “we will continue to work”, they promised.
