EH Bildu broke all the forecasts yesterday at the polls and turned the results harvested in the 251 Basque municipalities and the three General Assemblies into a political tsunami. Arnaldo Otegi's coalition won for the first time in its history the elections in the City Council of Vitoria and was about to repeat the victory of 2015 in San Sebastian. But the spectacular growth of the lists in which the Abertzale left had included 44 convicted of terrorism spread to a large part of the small and medium-sized municipalities of Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya. The PNV sees its excellent run of electoral results since 2012 broken and suffers the loss of almost 40,000 votes compared to 2019 in the three Basque capitals.

The "magic night" that Arnaldo Otegi predicted when victims of terorrismo and political parties threw him in the face of resorting to candidates with blood on their hands was held yesterday at the headquarters of EH Bildu in San Sebastian. All the polls published before 28-M anticipated a growth of the Abertzale left but none predicted that its electoral spurt would allow it to win with solvency in Vitoria, the most disputed place in the Basque elections.

The technical tie that opened the range to four games was broken even before the scrutiny began when EiTB advanced a poll that gave the victory to Rocío Vitero and that also fell short. The candidate of EH Bildu has managed to be the first force with the same votes that her coalition obtained in 2019 but has taken advantage of the collapse of the PNV that yesterday obtained 7,000 votes less than four years ago. Bildu will govern in Vitoria unless the socialist Maider Etxebarria – second with an excellent result to less than 1,000 votes – achieves the support of the PNV and, above all, the Basque PP.

The decrease in participation – it did not exceed 60% of voters – also penalized the PNV yesterday in San Sebastian where at times EH Bildu seemed to be about to give the surprise of the day. Eneko Goia (PNV) will remain in the Mayor's Office by only 800 votes of difference over Juan Karlos Izagirre (EH Bildu) but both parties will have 8 councilors. The nationalists of Ortuzar leave almost 11,000 votes in the capital of Gipuzkoa that also mark a dangerous trend for the PNV in Guipúzcoa. In fact, EH Bildu was yesterday the party that obtained more support in the General Assemblies -provincial parliament- and achieved important and symbolic mayoralties such as Andoain.

The PNV only managed to contain the electoral wave in Vizcaya and, thanks to the PP, will manage to recover a mayor's office like that of Durango, the town in which the lehendakari Urkullu resides. Carlos García (PP) recovered the seat in Durango that can allow the PNV to unseat EH Bildu from the Mayor's Office, after a legislature governing with the support of Elkarrekin Podemos. The City Council of Bilbao will also remain controlled by the PNV but after suffering the loss of two councilors while EH Bildu wins three with an unknown candidate. Ortuzar's nationalists lost 18,000 voters last night in the capital of Biscay compared to 2019.

Along with the electoral growth of EH Bildu, the Basque polls confirmed the electoral recovery of the Basque PP of Carlos Iturgaiz. The 'popular' ones become key to determining governability in Vitoria and grow in towns such as Getxo (Vizcaya) and in the Alava municipalities of Labastida and Laguardia, where they already won in 2019. Four years ago, the PNV evicted the 'popular' mayors with the support of EH Bildu and in both municipalities they have fallen in the number of votes. Ortuzar and Urkullu will have to decide whether, after yesterday's setback, they can continue to inflate Otegi's electoral balloon.

  • Bildu
  • PNV
  • Vitoria-Gasteiz
  • PP
  • Biscay
  • Arnaldo Otegi
  • Carlos Iturgaiz
  • Elkarrekin Podemos
  • Basque Country Elections

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