Basque Country holds its elections with new faces

Eva Rodríguez

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The Basque elections will be held on 21 April, with new faces. A CIS study has indicated that EH Bildu could win for the first time. Not with Otegi, but with Pello Otxandiano, an engineer who breaks with the tradition of EH Bildu. The PNV also renews staff with Imanol Pedrales, who has focused his campaign on security, joining the discourses of the right.

People pass in front of a tram with advertising for PNV candidate Imanol Pradales. Luis Tejido (EFE)

As was seen in the RTVE debate, the main issues of the campaign are health and housing, issues in which the PNV has been worn down. All parties criticised the government's management of the falling quality of Basque public health care and its inaction on the housing problem. The other big issue, independence, although present in the campaign, was not taken as the main idea of the parties. In fact, in the debate on EiTB, the Basque public television station, Otxandiano referred to his parties as "pro-independence with their feet on the ground".

For its part, the Socialist Party, which has been in government with the PNV in recent years, faces these elections, with Eneko Andueza, after having been the most voted force in the Basque Country in the general elections in July. Sumar, with Alba García, presents itself as the key to a progressive Euskadi. Meanwhile, Elkarrekin Podemos is seeking to retain its representation in the Basque Parliament after its departure from Sumar.

The PP candidate, Javier de Andrés, seeks to return to the ideological centre of the Basque Country after PP voters resorted to voting for the PNV to prevent an EH Bildu government. Vox, for its part, is fighting to keep the only seat it has, with a discourse on security and linking crime to illegal immigration.

On 21 April, the future of the Basque Country will be decided, which, according to the CIS, is on the verge of change, with an EH Bildu that could put an end to the hegemony of the PNV 15 years after Patxi López achieved it.