Highest ever vote for Basque nationalists
"Today Euskal Herria is more nationalist and more left-wing"
Soledad Galiana reports from the Basque Country on last weekend's
historic elections
The election results in the Basque Country have highlighted the
support of Basque society for the new political scenario created
by the Lizarra-Garazi peace agreement.
Euskal Herritarrok (EH) - the new electoral coalition created by
Herri Batasuna to fight this elections - has increased its vote
since the last autonomous elections in 1994 by 2.1%, getting 14
seats in the 75-seat autonomous parliament in Gazteiz. "Today is
a great, happy night for Euskal Herria [the Basque Country],"
said Arnaldo Otegi, EH candidate for Gipuzkoa, one of the three
provinces that together with Araba and Bizkaia form the Basque
Autonomous Community. "Today Euskal Herria is more nationalist
and more left-wing".
EH, with 223,264 votes, 17.9% of the total, registered the
biggest increase among the nationalist parties, and the greatest
electoral support in the history of the independence movement.
70.7% of the Basque electorate voted in a day marked by the news
of a BBC interview with two ETA members, which was broadcast on
Wednesday by Basque Television in the Basque Country (and by the
BBC last Saturday). The increased turnout was seen by the
political analysts as a threat to the nationalist parties, as it
would boost the vote for the Spanish Socialist Party (PSE-EE) and
the right-wing Popular Party (PP). PP's vote did indeed increase
-as did the PSE-EE's by a small margin - to reach 20.1%, becoming
the second political force in the Basque Autonomous parliament,
taking advantage of other right-wing parties' losses. But the
total sum of seats in the Parliament of the nationalist parties
remains the same, with an increase in the number of votes.
United Left (IU), the only non-nationalist party that signed the
Lizarra-Garazi peace Agreement, suffered a major defeat, losing 4
seats. Days ago, Proinsias Da Rossa, leader of Democratic Left,
met Julio Anguita, the leader of IU. Today, IU has lost 4
deputies in the Basque parliament. The curse of Proinsias,
perhaps? The leadership of IU has maintained that the bad results
will not change their attitude and commitment to the new
political debate opened by the Basque Peace Process.
The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) maintained its position as the
largest party, with 21 seats in the Parliament, though they lost
one seat in spite of the vote increase. The leader of PNV, Xabier
Arzalluz, highlighted that the nationalist parties maintain the
same number of seats, although distributed in a different way.
The nationalist parties now hold 41 seats, against 34 for the
non-nationalists. "We, the nationalists, have the same number of
seats, but we have won 120,000 [more] votes. They have lost, they
should learn from it", Arzalluz said in reference to PSE-EE and
PP.
Despite maintaining their number of votes Eusko Alkartasuna (EA)
suffered the loss of two seats as they did not benefit from the
increased turnout. EA president, Carlos Garaicoetxea, admited the
possibility that some of their potential votes went to EH. "A new
expectatiion has been generated within the Nationalist movement.
Maybe Euskal Herritarrok has capitalized from it," he said.
Coalition government
The distribution of seats in the Basque Autonomous Parliament
means that at least three parties must form an alliance in order
to create a coalition government. After the elections in 1994,
the PNV formed a coalition with the other nationalist party, EA,
and the Spanish Socialist Party (PSE-EE). It was, at best, a
fragile alliance and the agreement within the coalition was
broken last summer, just before the elections. During the
elections campaign, PSE-EE kept attacking PNV because of its
support for the Lizarra-Garazi Agreement, but they also tried to
keep an open door for another possible approach to form the new
autonomous government.
other possibility for PNV could be an alliance with the PP, but
in this case they would need a third party. Although both parties
have antagonistic positions on key issues such as the peace
process, Basque language and development of the Autonomous law
for the Basque Country, all is possible in politics - after all,
PNV supports PP's minority government in the Spanish State
Parliament.
Arnaldo Otegi, a leading member of Euskal Herritarrok, stated
that the position of the independentist coalition is not to take
part in the Basque government, although he explained there would
be a possibility of EH collaborating with the institutions. This
would mean that two of the nationalist parties PNV and EA could
form the Basque government with the support of EH on some key
issues. "There will be institutional collaboration if that means
we can open a new political scenario. There would be
collaboration but to achieve that there should be inclusive
negotiations," he said
Three prisoners elected
Three of EH's newly elected members to the Basque Parliament are
Jose Antonio Etxeberria, Juan Antonio Urritikoetxea ("Josu
Ternera") and Pablo Goroztiaga, who are currently awaiting trial
in Spanish prisons. Etxeberria was arrested on charges related to
ETA's financial structure. Josu Ternera, who has already served
time in France after being accused of ETA membership, was
deported by the French government to Spain. Goroztiaga, who was
the mayor of Laudio, was arrested in relation to the closure of
the Basque newspaper EGIN. On Monday, just after being elected
deputy to the Basque Parliament, he was released on bail of
£75,000. Because of their election as representatives, the trial
of the three Basque political prisoners will not take place in
Madrid. They will be judged by the Basque Supreme Court.
On Monday, just after being elected
deputy to the Basque Parliament, he was released on bail of
£75,000. Because of their election as representatives, the trial
of the three Basque political prisoners will not take place in
Madrid. They will be judged by the Basque Supreme Court.
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