New party, Bildu, very successful in regional elections

It wasn’t long ago, in fact not even a month ago, that Spanish courts had ruled that a new party in the Basque Country couldn’t stand for elections held just yesterday.  Bildu (Gather in English), a coalition of nationalist and left-of-center groups, was formed when Sortu (Create in English), another attempt to form a new nationalist party, was banned.  Bildu itself had been banned by Spanish courts all the way to the Spanish Supreme Court.  However, the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled that the party was legal and allowed it to stand for elections (I am not knowledgeable enough about the Spanish judicial system to know how these two courts are related).

The key, in my understanding, is that Bildu rejected violence.  However, Sortu had done the same, but was still ruled to be an incarnation of Batasuna, widely viewed as ETA’s political arm.  I am not entirely clear on what the difference between Bildu and Sortu is (except maybe the Constitutional Court never ruled on Sortu?).

In any case, today saw the first elections in which leftist nationalists were represented by a political party since the early 2000s when Batasuna had last been allowed to run.  And, their success has been nothing short of amazing (see this EiTB article).  Of all of the political parties represented, they received the second most votes (second only to PNV; 25 vs 29.9%) and the most seats in government (907 vs PNV’s 822) (I assume the disparity between number of votes and number of seats depends on where the votes were cast).  Even in Nafarroa, which has recently been pushing to reduce Basque influence within the province, saw Bildu get about 11% of the vote.

After the PNV lost power in the Basque Autonomous Community to Patxi Lopez and the PSE-EE, it will be interesting to see how this new swing to the left and to another decidedly pro-nationalist party will affect things in the Basque Country.  It is also amazing that a party that, until very recently, was banned is the choice of so many people.  It makes you think that a large number of voters didn’t have a voice they felt represented them.

I’d be very interested in getting some reaction from people in the Basque Country about their view of the meaning of these election results as well as more insight into the history of these parties.

3 thoughts on “New party, Bildu, very successful in regional elections”

  1. Hi Blas!

    Beside the decission of the Constitutional Court, Sortu is just one political party and Bildu is a coalition of three parties (‘Sortu’+ Eusko Alkartasuna + Alternatiba). Important at this moment 😉

  2. Te contesto en euskera y castellano.

    Denok dakigu, españak, euskaldun kulturaren aurka egiten duela beti eta horren adibide bat, kasu hau azaltzeko berebizikoa, Ley de Partidos delakoa da.

    Lege hau, terrorismoaren aurka egindako lege berezi bat da, non ETA kondenatzen e duten partiduak, legez kanpo utzi ahal izango dira. Lege honek eragin haundia izan du euskal politikan, 2007 datuak eta 2011-koak alderatzea besterik ez dago.

    Pentsazazue 300.000 boto isilduak izan direla hainbat urtetan Euskal Herrian, hain giuzarte txikian…

    Honek, lege honen helburua argi uzten du nire ustez: euskadi-n Gobernatzea

    Bazen garaia gauzak argi esatekoa, eta españari, europari eta munduari bidali diogun mezua argi dago: Euskaldunak gara eta harro gaude! eta horrela jarraitu nahi dugu.Eusladunen aurkako politikarik ez.

    Besterik gabe, agur bero bat Bizkaia-tik.

    Todos sabemos que el gobierno español a estado poniendo trabas a la cultura vasca durante muchos años, y como ejemplo, la Ley de Partidos, una Ley que es clave para entender este tema.

    Esta ley fue creada, supuestamente, como arma para acabar con ETA. Asi, los partidos que no condenaran la violencia de ETA serian ilegalizados. Esta ley ha tenido un impacto brutal en la politica vasca, hasta el punto que hay alreddor de 300.000 votos que han sido silenciados, en una sociedad tan pequeña como la vasca…

    En mi opinion, esta Ley se creo con el objetivo de gobernar en euskadi, a base de silenciar a la que hoy en dia, es la segunda fuerza politica del pais.

    Ya era hora de decir las cosas claras, y el mensaje que hemos mandado a españa, europa y a todo el mundo esta muy claro: Somos vascos y estamos orgullosos, y asi queremos seguir. Basta de politicas antivascas.

    Un saludo desde Bizkaia.

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