The Alderdi Eguna, Party Day, on Sunday is not just another for the PNB. The Jeltzales arrive in a climate of pessimism after the electoral defeats of May 28 and July 23, and they want to display strength in front of society and instill optimism among their members in the face of a political course that will likely conclude in June with the elections Basque The nationalists, moreover, are preparing to look for a leading role in the coming weeks in the context of the investiture negotiation of Pedro Sánchez, coordinating their agenda in some points with that of Junts, who will attend the Alderdi Eguna on Sunday.
Its general secretary, Jordi Turull, will be in charge of representing the pro-independence formation in the great festive and vindicative day of the PNB. Last year, Josep Rull already attended the meeting, although Junts then gave the visit a lower profile. This time it comes nine days after the meeting between Andoni Ortuzar and Carles Puigdemont, and in a climate of obvious rapprochement. The PNB, meanwhile, has pushed a social media campaign to get mass attendance on Sunday and there has been a bugle call from Sabin Etxea. Mood is important in politics, and Basque nationalists are aware that the pulses in the bosom of the party are low.
The Jeltzales, in addition, try to combat a certain image, excessively institutional and linked to power, that has been installed in society. Ortuzar summed it up a few days ago when he stressed that they are “a party of people, a movement party, rather than a political formation of cadres or elites”. This is how they want to be seen, to recover a more popular image and a more vindictive discourse at the national level, recovering the defense of Basque self-government and the Basque language and culture in the face of those who perceive that the formation is a bit blurred. For this reason, the image they can project on Sunday in the fields of Foronda is important for the PNB in ??its most complicated electoral moment in 12 years.
The interventions of the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu and Andoni Ortuzar in recent weeks have set the road map for a vital course, and the starting line is the Alderdi Eguna. The aim is to prevent what a survey by El Mundo has drawn this week, the overtaking of EH Bildu in the PNB in ??a Basque election, from happening, no matter how much the two formations have called into question the credibility of the poll. From here on, the PNB will have to run thin on the two battlefields in which the battle will be fought in the run-up to the elections to the Basque Parliament: in Madrid and in Euskadi.
In the case of the Madrid scenario, events will be precipitated in an imminent manner and the PNB will be demanding. It has been seen with the issue of languages ??and the possible relegation of the official Basque language in the European Union. PNB will seek its moment and cannot afford insolence at such a committed time.
