PNV and EH Bildu face each other in the closest elections in the Basque Country. The campaign that began yesterday will be decisive, with studies that point to the possibility that the nationalist left will widen the gap of difference with the Peneuvistas. Its electorate is completely mobilized, while in the PNV's electorate there is greater demobilization that can penalize them at the polls. In any case, it is a fact that the campaign starts with an expectation of change that had not occurred until now in regional elections.
The nationalist left has carried out an operation of aesthetic conversion, although Sortu and Arnaldo Otegi continue to have control. This is what the PNV campaign is now trying to highlight, although the sociological change and the whitewashing operation in which the PSOE has collaborated so much play against it. Without terrorism, the competition almost enters into a management arena, where a gap has opened up for the PNV on the health issue, for example.
Furthermore, the nationalist left has faced a process of internal reorganization and its strategy in the institutions, putting aside the most identity issues to prioritize social issues and a left-wing ideological component. ETA prisoners also continue to be their priority.
In the ranks of the PNV there is concern about how its electorate is going to behave in these elections, from the premise that What is reasonable is that the government agreement with the PSE can be reissued, but without taking it for granted. The trust of his voter acts against him, and hence he is directing the campaign to warn that Bildu has a hidden agenda and stability may be at risk because it cannot be ruled out that, depending on the result, it will try to import the Navarrese route. to Euskadi.
The PNV, concerned about the rise of Bildu, changes its strategy and warns of Otegi's hidden agenda
The socialist agreement to cede the mayor's office of Pamplona to the nationalist left, after the previous pact in the Regional Community, exerts great pressure on the PSE and its candidate. From socialist sectors they insist that Bildu does not stop repeating the mantra that they are in no hurry to come to power, an issue that spokespersons for this party deny. The pieces that come out of the polls can move the national political board after the Basque elections, although nothing will be decisive until the Catalan framework is also cleared, where the polls today leave the door open to the possibility of a blockade that would lead to repeating the elections again.
As there is no trust between the parties, the Basque nationalists are crossing their fingers that the President of the Government, within his capacity to surprise his allies, does not leave them stranded after the elections. Pedro Sanchez will take positions in these Basque elections, with the help of former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who is once again a rising and appealing figure especially during the electoral period. In Galicia he has already promised to help the socialist candidate Eneko Anduenza with the aim of winning the Basque elections. Sánchez's first visit to the Basque Country during the campaign will be this Saturday. He will travel to Vitoria to support the PSE-EE candidate.
Although where they will really be exhibited will be in Catalonia. The Basque socialists fear that the Navarrese effect will harm them, and that this confrontation between the PNV and EH Bildu could also harm them electorally for influencing the orientation of the useful vote. Those of Arnaldo Otegi are absorbing all the votes of the left of Sumar or Podemos, although the last CIS saved the face of the Basque socialists, offering the most favorable x-ray for his interests. A repetition of their current results, which would make them a pivotal party.
The Basque and Catalan elections will have an impact on the development of the national legislature, possibly complicating the approval of the Budgets instead of facilitating them, since the sovereign price may be higher, but the Popular Party does not link this electoral cycle with the duration of the as long as Pedro Sánchez remains in Moncloa. They assume that parliamentary instability and political tension will grow, although they do not anticipate a motion of censure. This is a legislature of uncertainty in which neither the partners nor the investigations opened by the “Koldo case” and the shadows over Begoña Gómez, the wife of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, help to glimpse a more governable climate after this electoral cycle.
The PSE-EE fears that the Navarrese effect will harm them by influencing the orientation of the useful vote
By the way, the popular leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will also be installed in the Basque campaign, with a national profile complementary to the activity of the regional PP candidate, Javier de Andrés. He will travel at least up to five times
Isabel Díaz Ayuso will have her own role to deactivate the Vox vote and try to leave Santiago Abascal's party without representation in the Basque Chamber. His presence has been requested by the Basque Popular Party, and in the Community of Madrid they are already looking at how to fit the agenda so that he will “rally” one day more than the last week of the campaign. In addition, the PP of Madrid sends a thousand volunteers for election day (intervenors and representatives).
To a lesser extent, the leaders of Sumar and Podemos, whichThey need to enter to confirm the durability of their political projectss. Vice President Yolanda Díaz will be present at the two main events of the campaign. She will support the candidate Alba García this Saturday and next April 13 in Barakaldo. For Podemos, Irene Montero was at the campaign opening yesterday and the support of Ione Belarra is expected. The Vox candidate, Amaia Martínez, will have the full support of its president, Santiago Abascal.