The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) can breathe easily. By the skin of its teeth it won this Sunday's elections to the Parliament of the Basque Country and its rival EH Bildu did not manage its hoped-for overtaking move. But Andoni Ortuzar's party suffered like never before to prevail over the abertzale (Basque nationalist) left, after a night in which the count sometimes placed Bildu leader Pello Otxandiano ahead, and, at other times, the PNV debutant candidate Imanol Pedrales caught up to reach a tie, at 27 seats a piece. That was the final result, a tie in seats and victory in votes for the PNV, which will have to manage a more complex legislature than it seems, since if there are no surprises, which there won't be, it will retain the lehendakari or presidency thanks to the announced pact with the Socialists (PSE), but, the other side of the coin is that the party's five votes in Spanish Congress of Deputies will be worth somewhat less. The new correlation of forces in the chamber in the city of Vitoria will give some fresh air to Pedro Sánchez.
If the PNV-Bildu duel was saved through a last minute victory for the former, the third and fourth positions went to the PSE and the People's Party (PP), which improved their results from four years ago. The Socialists rise to 12 seats - they previously had 10 - and the PP to seven, gaining one. These are not numbers to write home about, but Sánchez and Feijóo have also saved the day since everything except a loss registers a positive score and politics will quickly change channels to concentrate on the Catalan election. Vox obtains one seat, repeating what it already had, and Sumar also obtains one parliamentarian. This result from Yolanda Díaz's party is ridiculous, but it has the only merit of overtaking Podemos, which did not win a single seat.
The new correlation of forces in the chamber in the city of Vitoria will give some fresh air to Pedro Sánchez
The electoral result will force the PNV to manage the next legislature in a different way from the last - they have left four seats behind them at the polls - if it wants to reconnect with its electorate. There is a certain anger in the Basque Country with the party's politics in very sensitive areas and outgoing lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu has left the legacy of a politician far removed from the daily problems of the people. If the PNV do not want to lose the next elections in four years, they will have to recover a policy of hope with the new voters and the middle classes under 45 years old.
If that does not happen, the shift of nationalism towards Bildu and the ability of the latter to act as a vacuum cleaner for the Spanish left will leave Arnaldo Otegi's party in a very good position to finally overtake their rival. From the Basque political angle, one can highlight a fact that will not find a place on many front pages: out of the 75 seats in the Vitoria parliament, 54 are now held by strictly-Basque parties. The remaining 21 are distributed among the other four parties. That means that the PNV and Bildu account for 72% of the seats, well over two-thirds. It is also a lesson that helps to explain many things.