The most even Basque electoral campaign, a bit flat at the start and very inflamed in the final stretch, closed last night with the unknown to what extent EH Bildu’s position regarding the critical review of terrorism , the big theme in this decisive week, has been able to modify the trends that were drawn until last weekend.
Last night the PNB launched a final call for the mobilization of Basque society, focusing on the idea that “it is at stake that Euskadi continues to advance or that it recedes”, while the Abertzale coalition, accompanied by President Pere Aragonès, try to make it understood that the possibility of a quiet change on Sunday is real.
The two Abertzales formations, in the case of the PNB with the presence of Jordi Turull, agreed to dismiss the campaign in Bilbao, after a few hours earlier they had agreed in Vitoria, a key territory in the distribution of seats. The PSE also dismissed the campaign in the Biscayan capital, with the intervention of Pedro Sánchez; Sumar, with Minister Ernest Urtasun (in the absence of Yolanda Díaz), and Podem, with Ione Belarra. The PP, in which Alberto Núñez Feijóo accompanied its candidate, and Vox, in the presence of Santiago Abascal, opted for the Alabaster capital.
The PNB candidate, Imanol Pradales, a rower in his youth, made a simile with the sport of trainers to draw a situation of total equality between his training and the Abertzale coalition in which they need to “catch the last wave” . Certainly, the polls that have been published have shown a very tight pulse between the Jeltzales and EH Bildu, although the feeling a week ago was that the pro-independence trainer was escaping and even showing the stern to the Jeltzales.
The big doubt a few hours before the elections is whether the PNB has managed to recover in the last few days, once the electoral impulse has increased and after the stumble of Pello Otxandiano, candidate of EH Bildu, when he repeatedly avoided referring se ETA as a “terrorist”, a position very conditioned by the balance game in which its formation moves. “The future of Euskadi is at stake, and we do not want a black and white Euskadi that returns to the past”, said Andoni Ortuzar, president of the PNB.
The Abertzale coalition, meanwhile, emphasized in its last act that a change led by Otxandiano is a certain possibility. That is why he tried to dress up this option of pragmatism by inviting Aragonès, who intervened, or by showing on a giant screen messages such as those of Michelle O’Neill, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, or Pepe Mujica, former president of Uruguay. Pello Otxandiano called for “hope” for “a regeneration” and “a long-term change of outlook and beyond partisan visions”.
The victory in seats on Sunday, the great symbolic triumph, will be between the Jeltzales and the Abertzale coalition, but we will have to look further to see who can govern and how. And this is where the socialists come in, accompanied yesterday by Sánchez, who addressed the PSE that usually comes out in general elections (as a rule, much stronger than in Basque elections). “You have won the campaign. Faced with the resignation of some, you have brought excitement and desire. Faced with the hidden agenda of others, you have given your face. And in front of those who always insult, you have put solutions on the table”, pointed out the socialist leader to give the final boost to Eneko Andueza, his candidate.
The fate of the Socialists, who aspire to grow in seats, even if only minimally, and above all to add an absolute majority with the PNB, would be fatal news for the PP, which yearns for a scenario in which it can become relevant in the Basque Country again. It will be if the PNB and the PSE do not add up to 38 seats, which is why De Andrés insisted on asking for a vote to “balance and moderate” Basque politics, and directly urged voters disappointed with the PNB to support him . Feijóo, meanwhile, accused the Jeltzales and the Socialists of “cynicism” for questioning EH Bildu’s ethical position regarding terrorism and, at the same time, “governing together and always voting the same”.
Regarding the struggle in the space of the confederal left between Podemos and Sumar, two formations that are playing for their parliamentary survival in the Basque Country, the purple formation insisted on its campaign leitmotif: “It seems very sad to me that in this campaign the PSE and Bildu are fighting to see who governs first with the PNB”, said Ione Belarra, who accompanied his candidate for lehendakari, Miren Gorrotxategi. From Sumar, meanwhile, they took advantage of the fact that the polls give them a slight advantage over their former colleagues to call for a useful vote in the space of the left. “We cannot lose a single vote. The vote for the confederal left in Euskadi must be for Sumar”, pointed out his candidate, Alba García.
