This Sunday, April 21, the approximately two million Basques are called to the polls to renew their regional Parliament. This is not an election like any other since, for the first time, EH Bildu, the heir to the political arm of the late terrorist organization ETA (which murdered around 850 people over four decades and dissolved in 2018) is widely favored and could win over the moderate conservative nationalists of the PNV, who have been at the head of the region for 45 years.
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His name is Pello Otxandiano, he is only 41 years old, with his glasses, he has a serious appearance, his speech is very social and he talks little about Basque identity, recalls our special correspondent in San Sebastian, François Musseau. It is the candidate who is the favorite for these legislative elections, the leader of Bildu, a left-wing separatist coalition whose heart is the direct heir of Herri Batasuna, the former political branch of ETA.
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And yet, there are now no more waves here, as Alberto Surio, analyst at the newspaper, points out El Diario Vasco : “ This electoral campaign has demonstrated that we are closer to Copenhagen than often to Madrid. The tone in Madrid is very harsh on the political scene and, here on the other hand, this campaign has revealed a great level of democratic maturity and seriousness. »
A very gentle campaign therefore. Truly surprising when we think that in the recent past, elections were systematically marked by attacks, assassinations and death threats from ETA. For Alberto Surio, the Basque Country has profoundly changed. “ Basque society has been profoundly transformed in twenty years, he analyzes. There is a generational succession which is notorious; and Basque society has turned the page on its past. » However, listening to many, the wounds of the past have not yet really healed.
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Political balances preserved?
EH Bildu could therefore impose itself, without governing, because the Basque Socialist Party should ally with the Basque Nationalist Party to lead the region and thus preserve political balances, as detailed by Maria Elisa Alonso, political scientist, teacher and researcher at the University of Lorraine.
“ I think we should not mix the national politics and regional policy, she explains to Romain Lemaresquier of RFI’s international service. At the national level, (the Basque Socialist Party) needs the support of the PNV and Bildu. But, at the regional level, he always sided with the PNV. There is no room for maneuver to form a coalition for the regional government with Bildu. So, really, we cannot mirror the agreements in Madrid with the Basque Country. Moreover, the leader of the (Basque) socialist party has already said from the beginning, in addition, that he would never consider a government with Bildu and that in addition, the coalitions or agreements made in the Basque Country are decided at the Basque Country, and not Madrid. So, there are really two completely different games. »