Iñigo Urkullu will leave his office in Ajuria Enea before the summer, after three legislatures devoted body and soul to the office of Lehendakari of the Basque Government, a position for which he seemed destined. The PNB has chosen to make a change of script and will choose another candidate who can provide an impact in the face of the contested electoral fight that it will have with EH Bildu in the spring. The election of the next head of the list will be hastened after a news was leaked yesterday that advances the augur of an unconventional politician in times of liquid politics, a meticulous, calm and disciplined person until the exaggeration he managed to bring GNP to its best results in more than three decades.
The PNB had planned to put Urkullu’s farewell on track in another way; however, the news broke in the early hours of yesterday afternoon. It was published by the newspaper El Correo, which pointed out that the Euskadi Buru Batzar (EBB), the executive of the party, had communicated to the current lehendakari its decision not to repeat as a candidate in the next elections to the Basque Parliament. At the weekend, La Vanguardia had already advanced that the Jeltzale executive was evaluating the possibility of running for another candidacy. All eyes were on Sabin Etxea, who expected a relatively quiet day, marked by the visit of Junts leaders.
It wasn’t like that. The leak displeased the Basque Government and the management of the PNB all the more. The executive of the party issued a note in which she pointed out that she did not assess this information and referred to a meeting on Monday with the aim of addressing the “process for the configuration of candidacies”. Other reliable sources confirmed the call to Iñigo Urkullu.
The news cannot be understood without taking into account the latest electoral results of the PNB, both in the municipal and regional elections in May and in the general elections in July. Until the summer, the maxim that was transmitted was that Urkullu would have the last word: “If he wants to be the candidate, the party will bet on him”, they said. The lehendakari started the political course by making winks that showed his will to continue. If he wondered in his circle, the answer was yes: Urkullu looked strong and was betting to run for the fourth time. PNB confirmation was missing. Alderdi Eguna did not arrive, the ideal day and stage. And neither did the following weeks. The reflection that the EBB began in the summer, after the two electoral setbacks, had reached a conclusion: the party needs a shocker that generates excitement and mobilises.
The journey of the Biscayan politician as lehendakari came to an end in a situation that has similarities with the context that surrounded his arrival in Ajuria Enea, after passing through the party’s leadership. It is the story of the last political cycle in Euskadi. It began in 2011, the year of the end of ETA, with the lightning-fast irruption of Bildu in the municipal and regional councils that year. The Abertzale coalition, already with Aralar and with the Amaiur brand, improved results in the general elections of the same year and won the PNB in ??terms of seats in Congress.
With a PSE with no real possibility of extending Patxi López’s mandate, the elections were seen as a fight marked by an unprecedented equality between the two great Abertzal formations. And it is there that he began to build a brand image of the lehendakari that has been extremely effective.
The Urkullu team knew how to read the political moment and ran away from impostures and artifices. In a scenario marked by the economic crisis, Basque society was looking for a more reliable than charismatic leader, a lehendakari who offered a horizon of certainty. Urkullu’s sobriety and a political and life trajectory without dissonance were perfect for this. In the Basque elections of 2012, he won 107,000 votes and six seats in EH Bildu. An incontestable victory and a gap that would widen four years later.
In the following years, the trident formed by Andoni Ortuzar, in Bilbao, at the head of the PNB executive; Aitor Esteban, in Madrid, as spokesman in Congress, and Iñigo Urkullu, in Vitoria, at the head of the Basque Government; he led the party to its best results since the split with Eusko Alkartasuna (1986). The PNB annulled Bildu’s attempt to overtake, led the new era without violence and was the traditional party that best endured the crisis of representation that surfaced around the 2015-2016 school year.
With the perspective given by the current moment, it can be seen that it reached its ceiling in 2019. In the Basque elections of July 2020, marked by the pandemic, Urkullu achieved its record number of seats, the current 31, although went down in terms of votes. The high abstention was strictly linked to the pandemic; nevertheless, a subsequent analysis points out that the PNB already began to suffer wear and tear that has increased in the last two appointments with the ballot boxes. This is where the reflection that ended yesterday with the call to Urkullu came from. Now two unknowns remain to be clarified: the date of the elections – probably in March – and, especially, who will take over.
