BASQUE COUNTRY ELECTIONS RESULTS | The PNV wins the municipal ones against the rush of Bildu, which shortens distances one year from the regional ones

Bittersweet victory for the jetzales (31.6%), who lose Vitoria and remain just over one point behind Bildu (29.2%) in percentage of vote

Sabin Etxea is celebrating again, although very bittersweet. The PNV has won again in the municipal elections in the Basque Country, with a 31.6% of the votes, but a good handful of ballots are left in the face of the enormous momentum of Bildu, which achieves 29.2% of the ballots, ahead of the PNV with a historic victory in Vitoria and equals it in mayors in Donostia.

There is still a year left for the regional elections, but this first electoral date has served as a thermometer to measure forces. And the abertzale left jump it is indisputable. In the 2019 municipal elections, the PNV won with 36.2% of the votes and took over 1,050 councilors, while Bildu obtained 25.1% of the ballots and 931 councilors. Now, the abertzales shorten the gap and considerably increase their municipal representation: Bildu has 1,047 councilors, a hundred more, and the PNV falls to 976. In addition, the left abertzale also wins at the General Meeting of Gipuzkoa, with 22 seats compared to the 17 of the PNV, which remains the force with the most votes in those of Araba and Bizkaia.

The electoral campaign has been marked by the presence of those convicted of belonging to or collaborating with ETA on the Bildu lists, but it is not the Abertzales who seem to have taken its toll. Two of the seven candidates on whom blood crimes weighed and who announced their resignation to take office have finally been elected. The PSE maintains its percentage of the vote, with 16%, but loses almost twenty councilors (goes from 224 to 206). Podemos (5.8%) falls from fourth to fifth strength, and is the PP who rises with 8.48% of the ballots.One of the keys to these elections has been the drop in participation. Abstention has grown by almost six points compared to 2019: four out of ten Basque men and women have not gone to the polls.

Overturn in Vitoria

The municipal hegemony of the PNV, which governs in the three Basque capitals, is in danger after these elections. In Vitoria, Bildu becomes the first force with seven councilors compared to six for the PNV, PSE and PP. The triple tie in seats in the consistory is also doubly painful for the peneuvistas if you look at the number of votes: they are the fourth force. The popular recover a mayor Compared to 5 in 2019 in what was his electoral stronghold during several legislatures —he also governed the Álava provincial council. It is Podemos who loses a councilor, going from three to two.

In Donostia, the PNV lost two of the ten councilors it had and tied with Bildu in eight. Here, in addition, the two councilors of Elkarrekin Podemos could be decisive. Six achieved the PSE and three the PP.

In Bilbao, the mayor of the PNV, Juan Mari Aburto, wins in the elections with 12 councilors, but two are left compared to 2019 and it is far from the 15 necessary for an absolute majority. The capital of Bizkaia has not known a councilor who is not from the PNV since 1979, but here the rise of the abertzale left is also remarkable, which goes from four to six councilors. One also wins the PP, which goes up from 3 to 4.