Iruña Coffee. We met at this emblematic bar in Bilbao to talk about politics with four voters aged 19 and 20. Each one will opt for a different party in the next regional elections on April 21. Your appearance does not necessarily reveal your ideology. At least, according to the prevailing stereotypes. The one who defends the PP wears a ponytail and he himself laughs that he does not look like “the typical popular voter.” But, clichés aside, when they start debating, everyone has quite clear ideas. They know well why they are going to vote for each political party. Three are party activists. The fourth, sympathetic. This afternoon they are going to talk about energy transition, terrorism, education, polarization. With arguments and listening carefully to what others say.
The four were born with the PNV governing, in 2004, and have grown up with governments of this party except for the three years in which the socialist Patxi López was lehendakari, between 2009 and 2012. It is no surprise to anyone that EH Bildu is now challenging him first place in votes and seats. “The PNV has not known how to stop and listen to the dissatisfied voter,” says Aritz Cobanera, Business Administration (ADE) student. He grew up in Marbella, to Basque parents, and is now studying in Bilbao. His family is leftist. But he is going to vote for the PP, although he knows he is in a clear minority, especially among people his age. “We must recognize that the majority of young people here are from Bildu,” he says. “I think they have been able to convey the idea that they care about the social problems of youth.” “In addition, there is a progressive vote that has gathered around them also due to the demerit of the Spanish left,” adds Jone Leturiondo, a second-year student of Philosophy, Politics and Economics. She has been a member of the PNV since she was 16, from a PNV family, a convinced defender of the party. "By putting aside the fight to achieve independence, EH Bildu has managed to convey the idea that they are the useful progressive vote, that they are the only real alternative."
“Then in reality it is not like that,” says Lander Manrique, also a student of Philosophy, Politics and Economics and a member of the PSE (Socialist Party of Euskadi). “It is not true that his social policies are the same as those of the PSE or the rest of the left. It has been seen for example with education. They do not clearly bet on the public, but they also defend collaboration with the private. In the end, Basque is more important to them than guaranteeing a quality public school. But it is true that they have managed to get young people to see them as the left-wing option that can beat the PNV, which they see as an old man's party that should stop governing.”
The graphs on the young vote are eloquent: in this week's CIS pre-election survey you can see perfectly where the cut-off is where the PNV is still strong: those aged 45 and over. Before that age, he has been unseated. Between 25 and 44 years old, the gap between the two is enormous: EH Bildu beats the PNV by more than 15 points and would even approach 50% of the electorate. And this represents a notable step forward with respect to the 2020 elections. The post-election survey that year showed that the party led by Arnaldo Otegi was already winning among the population under 45, but it remained at 40% of the vote at most. And, if we go back 20 years, to the 2001 elections, the panorama was radically different in every way. The PNV swept all age groups and in the 35 to 44 age group the
Abertzale
left was the fourth force, also behind the PP and the PSE.
Voting intention by age group in the autonomous elections of the Basque Country
Data on direct voting intention by age adjusted to the total level of the party vote in the elections in 2001 and 2020 and to the pre-election survey estimate in 2024
CIS and own elaboration
But let's go back to the younger people and Café Iruña. “EH Bildu moves well through the streets,” says Lander Manrique. “That has always been his territory: the street, the parties, the
txoznas
(booths). “And their voters seem to exhibit a kind of moral superiority,” adds Jone Leturiondo. “They can wear EH Bildu badges and emblems and everything is perfect. However, the rest of us cannot defend the parties we like the same way because we are looked at strangely. I see someone from the PP and I don't say anything; to someone from the PSE, and I don't say anything; to someone from EH Bildu, and I don't say anything. Why do they have to say something to me? While they are in the streets, in the PNV there are many young people fighting in the institutions for the policies and rights of young people. Maybe the party should make this better visible, because it seems that EH Bildu is young and cool and what happens is that they are better at marketing and communication.”
“The PP is the party that I like the most economically,” says Aritz. “I don't agree with them at all. "I, for example, am in favor of euthanasia or abortion." The others immediately reproach him for the PP's pacts with Vox, a very minority party in Euskadi that currently has only one seat in the Basque Parliament and that in this autonomous community in the last general elections did not reach 3% of the vote against to the 12% that it obtained in Spain as a whole. “I don't like Vox, but the other parties refuse to agree with the PP,” he adds. "I would be very much in favor of a great coalition between the PSOE and the PP in the government of Spain, or of a pact here between PNV, PSE and PP."
The four of them were born in 2004. Seven years before ETA announced the definitive end to violence, and they have few direct memories of what it meant to live in a society in which terrorist violence was always present, in which they could kill your neighbor for being a socialist or popular councilor. None of them have studied this period at school or at the institute. “He is on the agenda, but he always stays until the end and in my class we don't make it,” says the PNV voter. “In the end, it is up to the teacher to talk about it or not. But I think it is important that we, who are the first generation that has not experienced violence, know what has happened and not romanticize it, because there is that risk.”
Four voters aged 19 and 20 at Café Iruña, in Bilbao.Fernando Domingo-Aldama
Soon EH Bildu's relationship with that violent past comes up in the conversation. “They still have to take steps in the direction of condemning terrorism,” says Lander Manrique. “Hegemony within the party is held by Sortu, who are the heirs of Batasuna, and what cannot remain for history is that the members of ETA were heroes who fought for the Basque people. “That is not admissible.”
“Here, on the one hand, what ETA was was forgotten very quickly, but on the other, the demands of its prisoners are still very present,” adds Jone Leturiondo. “And, sometimes, they go to absurd places. For example, in the 8-M demonstration in Durango in the second row there were posters with photos of prisoners. What sense does that have? They cannot occupy public spaces in that way. And this keeps happening.”
“I'm going to vote for Bildu, but I'm not a Bildu person,” explains Leire Díez, a second-year Basque Philology student. She defends that ETA “emerged in a context that must also be explained, that radicalization did not appear out of nowhere,” and that prisoners who have served their sentences have the right to reintegration. Her three table companions insist that in order for there to never be terrorist violence again, that world has to take responsibility for the events and say clearly that it should never have happened; that killing is always wrong and in any case. “95% of ETA's victims occurred in democracy,” highlights Lander Manrique. “I have the feeling that a little whitewashing of ETA has been done in schools,” says Aritz. “By action or omission, for not wanting to analyze that period.”
Then they start talking about independence, about whether or not the national issue is a reason to vote for EH Bildu now that they have focused on social problems and public policies. “I believe that Basque culture must be protected and vindicated, and I believe in the idea of Euskal Herria, but I do not have a clear opinion on independence and it is not my main argument for voting for EH Bildu,” says Leire. “I am much more moved by issues such as environmentalism, and I believe that the current Government falls short in many things. It seems to me that EH Bildu is closer to the projects and is committed to greener policies. In Donosti the PNV has destroyed an entire park full of trees. They want to build a Guggenheim museum in the Urdaibai reserve, with which I do not agree. And, in general, they continue with the idea of constant economic growth: more and more even if we destroy the planet. For me, what is happening is urgent, and I do not share this vision of things of going so little by little.”
“Yes, but the problem is that if you want to move so quickly with the energy transition, there are many people who will be harmed,” Aritz responds. “The industry, the small business owners… I am very much in favor of green energy, but it has to be a long-term transition.” “But business and industry can't keep pace,” says Lander. “It is the institutions that must lead this change.”
Young people are worried about the future of the planet and very much about their own: about being able to emancipate themselves, find a job, housing, access to healthcare. And they need to feel that politicians are going to take their problems seriously. “But to be able to provide aid to young people, to healthcare that has been so affected after the pandemic, you need a robust economy,” says Jone. “You need companies that are doing well for the country to function.” “I criticize the PNV for not listening to citizens' complaints in controversial projects, and I am interested in EH Bildu, which I believe encourages participation more,” says Leire. “I don't believe in a democracy that only consists of going to vote every four years.”
All four are disappointed that none of their parties have presented a woman as a candidate for lehendakari. Each one defends their own, the one they are going to vote for (Imanol Pradales, Pello Otxandiano, Eneko Andueza and Javier de Andrés), but they all agree that there were good policies and that an opportunity has been lost.
Almost two hours pass. They continue debating among themselves. They say that they could continue for two more hours and that they wish politicians would speak in this respectful and calm way. They abhor what they see in “Madrid politics”, the constant insults and attacks, and they are grateful that in Euskadi the Parliament is a much calmer place. They say goodbye. Jone Leturiondo, the PNV voter, and probably the most passionate during the talk, with these words: write down my name, that one day I will be lehendakari.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I am already a subscriber
_