The two souls of EH Bildu

The small village of Otxandio, a municipality of 1,300 inhabitants governed by EH Bildu in the heart of Bizkaia, has a square with a pediment, a 64th-century church, a Baroque town hall with the coat of arms of Castile on the façade and two sanctuaries separated from each other by a handful of meters. In the first, in Andikona Square, the names of the 22 residents, including several children, victims of the first bombing of the civilian population in the world, are written in iron. Although Gernika is the best known, the one in Otxandio came earlier: four days after Franco's coup d'état, on July 1936, 225, for half an hour the planes dropped the bombs on the town. The second 'sanctuary', behind the town hall, is a tribute to ETA that includes a mural with a map of the Basque Country and photographs of <> men and women "prisoners or fugitives".

In this silent and cobbled village at the foot of the Urkiola, Pello Otxandiano was born 40 years ago, the new candidate of the EH Bildu coalition for regional elections that are expected to be held in the spring of 2024 and in which, for the first time, the Abertzale left aspires to win.

Mural with the map of the Basque Country on which are the photographs of 225 men and women linked to ETA, "prisoners or fugitives", in Otxandio, this Saturday. Daniel Ochoa de Olza

From some windows of Otxandio hang flags with two arrows facing each other next to the word "etxera" (to go home). A year ago, the groups of ETA prisoners decided to change the classic logo of a map of the Basque Country and Navarre with which they demanded the rapprochement of ETA prisoners and change it to the one that exists now. The map is no longer necessary because 92% of the prisoners are in Basque or Navarrese prisons; The new strategy therefore focuses on requiring third degrees (the semi-liberty regime) and prison leave. The fabrics appear in the windows in a similar proportion to the flags of Spain seen in Madrid or the pro-independence flags in Barcelona. I mean, from time to time. When it is the turn of the real flags, the official ones, at the foot of the town hall governed by EH Bildu, there is a plaque from February 2014 that reads: "Today the Spanish flag has been placed in the town hall of Otxandio against the will of the neighbors, because this is what Spanish legislation imposes on us."

In 2011, the year ETA was dissolved, Pello Otxandiano entered politics and his party won with an absolute majority in his town. He was 28 years old at the time and had just finished his PhD in telecommunications engineering and a year of specialization in Sweden. The city council of which he was a member complied with the order that obliges the Spanish flag to be put in all consistories, but protested with a plaque in five languages.

Last Sunday in Bilbao, Otxandiano became Bildu's candidate for the elections in the sweetest moment since its creation in 2011, the result of a coalition formed by Sortu (heirs of Batasuna), Eusko Alkartasuna, Herritarron Garaia and Araba Bai, among others. Arnaldo Otegi, the 65-year-old politician who was a member of ETA, passed the baton to a 40-year-old engineer who earned his doctorate with a thesis dedicated to improving the algorithm in digital terrestrial television signals. When Otegi made the announcement, he summed up the decision in five words: "He's much better than me."

Pello Otxandiano will be the spearhead of a party that is key at all three levels of government – local, regional and national – and from the centre to the periphery. In Madrid, its six seats allow the stability of Pedro Sánchez's government. Further north, EH Bildu is on the verge of taking over the mayoralty of Pamplona, one of the jewels in the crown for the Abertzale world, thanks to the support of the Navarrese PSOE (PSN) to the motion of censure that will be voted on Thursday. And in the Basque Country it is the political formation that rises the most. According to the latest poll by the Basque Government, it will achieve a historic result of 25 seats which, however, will not be enough to govern if the current pact between the PNV and the PSOE is repeated.

On the day of his anointing as the new leader of the Abertzale left, Otxandiano presented himself as part of a generation that must give "updated answers to old questions". He did so in front of 2,000 supporters of the Abertzale left during an event with the air of a Goya gala in the elegant Euskalduna Palace: musical performances, long suits, light shows and multimedia projections. No hooded men, "gora ETA" or burning of Spanish flags, but American jackets, goggles and a concert of cello and trikitixa to liven up the speeches.

Mural in Andikona Square, in Otxandio, that remembers the 64 neighbors, including several children, victims of the first bombing of the civilian population in the world in 1936, Daniel Ochoa de Olza

In a dozen interviews with retired politicians, sociologists, university professors, businessmen, left-wing activists and opposition senators for this report, the idea that is most often repeated when describing EH Bildu is that it has become a "practical" party. Most agree that Bildu's electoral success rests on three legs. Data from the Deustobarómetro Social, from the University of Deusto, confirm wave after wave that increases the number of Basques who feel freer to speak publicly about politics, 61%, and those who maintain that violence does not justify any political objective, 89%. According to these analysts, part of EH Bildu's success lies in these numbers, as it is the party that has best understood society and the moment that the Basque Country is experiencing after the end of ETA. The second leg is that Bildu has markedly increased its social base by attracting voters not only nationalist but also left-wing. As a result, it has captured the vote that Podemos once had, whose irruption in the Basque Country was as powerful as in the rest of Spain, says Imanol Zubero, of Gesto por la Paz. The third success of the Abertzale Left has been to strengthen the left-wing discourse and reduce the Abertzale component. "She has turned to causes such as feminism, environmentalism, the sustainable economy, the defense of the public... which has allowed him to attract a new vote, not nationalist but Basque," sums up journalist Luis R. Aizpeolea.

"There is no rupture in Bildu. Otxandiano is a confidant of Otegi, who commissioned him to design the electoral program. But Otegi has his political future behind him and Otxandiano ahead of him. There's continuity because it comes from Sortu, but it's clean and doesn't distort," says Zubero, one of the thousands of Basques who until 12 years ago taught with an escort and now "just looks under the car to see if there's a cat," he jokes.

During the period in which Otxandiano was part of the town council, this phrase by the poet Joseba Sarrionandia was painted at all the entrances to the town: "The Basque language is the only free territory for the Basque people". His arrival at the top of Basque politics is the result of the territorial power in which Bildu has grown until now, weaving a network that goes from the ikastolas to the patron saint festivities. In the municipal elections in May, EH Bildu won 107 of the 251 municipalities in the Basque Country, including Vitoria, and 37 of the 272 in Navarre. From next Thursday it will also have a mayor in Pamplona. According to the Deustobarometer, city councils are the institution most valued by the Basques, above the regional government. It is precisely the expansion of the Basque language and linguistic immersion that is one of the obsessions of the aspiring Lehendakari.

There is a Bildu that manages city councils, closes budgets with surpluses, opens schools, presents proposals in Brussels, pedestrianises streets, manages the DNI and puts up bike lanes. And another Bildu that keeps alive the radical discourse and the link of a part of the coalition — Sortu — with the ETA past, although with a different language. In June, after pressure from various victims' associations, EH Bildu reduced to the "private" sphere a tribute to Diego Ugarte, a member of the commando that assassinated the socialist Fernando Buesa and his bodyguard Jorge Díez in February 2000 with a car bomb. In September, however, Otegi applauded on social media the words of a rower from Urdaibai who dedicated his victory to ETA prisoners. "Unfortunately, some have a long way to go," said the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu of the PNV. Ten days later, all the groups in the Basque Parliament except EH Bildu condemned the tributes to prisoners and members of ETA that had taken place that summer.

Are they two bildus? Is it a strategy? "It's not a strategy. In Bildu their two souls coexist, as is also the case in the PNV. The difference is that this time he has made a good reading of reality. They always misread the Transition, the Statute, terrorism... This time they have read the moment they are living well and stopping the right is a good glue," says Zubero. The myth that only the PNV knows how to manage has been demolished, but "Bildu will end up facing tensions," he adds. "One is ideological, since the rank and file will begin to push for independence and to deepen left-wing policies, and the other is management. The best example is San Sebastian and the management of garbage, which made them lose the elections."

Motion of no confidence in Pamplona

Bildu's arrival at Pamplona City Hall next Thursday will be the crowning glory of its best election year. Joseba Asiron will return to the mayor's office as a result of a vote of no confidence. However, one of the most striking achievements after the last elections was the growth of Bildu south of Pamplona. The abertzale green spot expands from Bilbao to the Ebro in municipalities such as Tafalla, Puente la Reina or Estella, 48 kilometres from Logroño. This newspaper has tried to gather the opinion of those responsible for Bildu in these municipalities but they refused to make statements.

According to Hedoi Etxarte, one of the owners of the Katakrak bookshop in Pamplona, EH Bildu's expansion to the south has to do with a crisis of the traditional parties. "In recent years, many people in the Basque Country have moved from abertzalismo to the left; and in Navarre, from the left to abertzalismo", he sums up. "Bildu has moderated its discourse in order to grow in areas that previously seemed impossible. Now he is not asking for "independence" but for the "right to decide," says Ricardo Feliú, professor of sociology at the University of Navarra. According to him, EH Bildu combines its presence in the social fabric with the institutions, which has given way to a paradox: "UPN is threatening to leave the federation of municipalities of Navarre [in protest against the motion of censure in Pamplona] and that was something that previously only Bildu did, which created its own network (udalbiltza)".

A flag, with two arrows facing each other next to the word "etxera" (to go home), the new logo of the ETA prisoners' collectives, in a house in Otxandio, this Saturday. Daniel Ochoa de Olza

The rain falls in Otxandio. At the fronton, some children finish playing ball and take refuge in the tobacconist's shop, where tobacco, sweets and the image of the Infanta Leonor in the magazine Pronto coexist with the newspaper Gara. Pello Otxandiano assures that his great-grandfather and two brothers of his maternal grandmother died in that bombing in July 1936. Although among the names of the deceased engraved in Andikona Square there is no one with their surnames, neither Otxandiano nor Kampo, the new leader of the Abertzale left says that this is where his political awareness began. The square that commemorates the massacre of 87 years ago is a well-kept, clean and well-designed place, with an iron monument commissioned from a well-known sculptor. The second shrine, the one that remembers the ETA prisoners, is a brick façade with an ugly metal fence where the dogs urinate.

Special Limited Time Offer

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Read more

I'm already a subscriber

_