The small town of Otxandio, a municipality of 1,300 people governed by EH Bildu in the heart of Bizkaia, features a gabled square, a 16th-century church, a Baroque town hall with the coat of arms of Castile on the facade and two separate sanctuaries just a few meters apart. In the first, in Andikona Square, the names of the 64 residents are written in iron, including several children, victims of the world's first bomb attack on civilians. Although Gernika is the most famous, Otxandio happened earlier: four days after Franco's coup, on July 22, 1936, planes dropped bombs on the city for half an hour. The second “sanctuary” behind the town hall is a tribute to ETA and includes a mural with the map of the Basque Country and photos of 225 men and women who are “prisoners or refugees.”
In this quiet, cobbled town at the foot of Urkiola, 40 years ago, Pello Otxandiano was born, the new candidate of the EH-Bildu coalition for regional elections expected to take place in spring 2024 and in which, for the first time, the nationalist left is aiming for victory .
Mural with the map of the Basque Country, which features photos of 225 men and women linked to ETA, “prisoners or refugees”, in Otxandio this Saturday. Daniel Ochoa de Olza
On some windows in Otxandio hang flags with two arrows facing each other and the word “etxera” (homeland). A year ago, the groups of ETA prisoners decided to replace the classic logo of a map of the Basque Country and Navarre, with which they called for the rapprochement of the ETA prisoners, with the one that now exists. The card is no longer necessary since 92% of prisoners are in Basque or Navarrese prisons; The new strategy therefore focuses on requiring a third degree (the semi-freedom regime) and prison permits. The fabrics appear in the windows in a similar proportion to the Spanish flags in Madrid or the 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, managed by EH Bildu, hangs a memorial plaque dated February 2014 with the inscription: “Today the Spanish flag was placed in the town hall of Otxandio against the will of the neighbors, because that is what Spanish legislation imposes on us.”
In 2011, the year ETA dissolved, Pello Otxandiano entered politics and his party won an absolute majority in his city. He was 28 years old at the time and had just completed his doctorate in telecommunications engineering and a year of specialization in Sweden. The city council of which he served complied with the order to display the Spanish flag in all town halls, but protested with a plaque in five languages.
Last Sunday in Bilbao, in the sweetest moment since its creation in 2011, Otxandiano became Bildu's candidate for the elections, 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 active in ETA, passed the baton to a 40-year-old engineer who earned his doctorate with a thesis on 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.”
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Pello Otxandiano will spearhead a party that plays a key role at all three levels of government – local, regional and national – and from the center to the periphery. In Madrid, its six seats ensure the stability of Pedro Sánchez's government. Further north, EH Bildu is poised to take over the mayoralty of Pamplona, one of the crown jewels of the nationalist world, thanks to the support of the Navarrese PSOE (PSN) for the no-confidence motion that will be voted on Thursday. And in the Basque Country it is the political formation that is growing the most. According to the Basque government's latest poll, it will achieve a historic result of 25 seats, but this will not be enough to govern if the current pact between the PNV and the PSOE is repeated.
On the day of his appointment as the new leader of the nationalist left, Otxandiano presented himself as part of a generation that must provide “current answers to old questions.” He did it before 2,000 Abertzale supporters departed the elegant Euskalduna Palace during an event with the feel of a Goya gala: musical performances, long costumes, light displays and multimedia projections. No masked people, “Gora ETA” or the burning of Spanish flags, but American jackets, tinted glasses and a cello and Trikitixa concert to enliven the speeches.
Mural in Plaza Andikona in Otxandio commemorating the 64 residents, including several children, who fell victim to the first bombing of civilians 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 to prepare this report, the idea most often repeated when describing EH Bildu is that it is a “practical” game. The majority agrees that Bildu's electoral success is based on three pillars. The data of the Deustobarómetro Social of the University of Deusto confirm, wave after wave, that the number of Basques who feel freer to speak publicly about politics increases by 61%, and the number of those who claim that violence does not justify a political goal, 89%. According to these analysts, part of EH Bildu's success lies in these figures, 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 pillar is that Bildu has significantly expanded its social base by attracting not only nationalist but also left-wing voters. In doing so, it has won the votes that Podemos once had, whose rise 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 was to strengthen the left-wing discourse and the Reduce Abertzale component. “She has committed herself to causes such as feminism, environmental protection, sustainable economics and the defense of the public… which has allowed her to attract a new constituency, not nationalist but Basque,” summarizes journalist Luis R. Aizpeolea.
“There is no break in Bildu. Otxandiano is a confidant of Otegi, who commissioned him to design the election program. But Otegi has his political future behind him and Otxandiano ahead of him. There is continuity because it comes from Sortu, but it is clean and does not distort,” says Zubero, one of the thousands of Basques who gave accompanied courses until 12 years ago and now “just look under the car if there are any ..” a cat,” he jokes.
During the period in which Otxandiano was part of the town hall, this phrase by the poet Joseba Sarrionandia was painted at all entrances to the city: “Basque is the only free territory for Basque speakers.” Its rise to the top of Basque politics is the result of territorial power , which Bildu has achieved so far and which creates a network that extends from the Ikastolas to the patron saint festivals. In May's local elections, EH Bildu won 107 of the 251 city councils in the Basque Country, including Vitoria, and 37 of the 272 in Navarre. From next Thursday there will also be a mayor in Pamplona. According to the Deustobarómetro, city councils are the institution most valued by the Basques, ahead of the regional government. The expansion of Basque and linguistic immersion is one of the aspiring Lehendakari's obsessions.
There is a Bildu that manages city councils, closes budgets with surpluses, opens schools, puts forward proposals in Brussels, opens streets for pedestrians, manages the DNI and creates cycle paths. And another Bildu that maintains the radical discourse and the connection of part of the coalition – Sortu – with the ETA past, albeit in a different language. In June, under pressure from various victims' associations, EH Bildu reduced to the “private” area a tribute to Diego Ugarte, a member of the commando who murdered the socialist Fernando Buesa and his bodyguard Jorge Díez with a car bomb in February 2000. However, in September, Otegi applauded on social media the words of an Urdaibai rower who dedicated his victory to the ETA prisoners. “Unfortunately, some still have a long way to go,” said the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, from the PNV at the time. Ten days later, all political groups in the Basque Parliament except EH Bildu condemned the tributes to prisoners and members of ETA that had taken place that summer.
Are those two images? Is it a strategy? “It's not a strategy. In Bildu, their two souls coexist, as happens in PNV. The difference is that this time he understood reality well. They have always misunderstood the transition, the statute, terrorism… This time they have correctly read the moment in which they live and stopping the right is a good glue,” says Zubero. The myth that only the PNV knows how to deal with this has been dispelled, but “Bildu will face tensions in the end,” he adds. “One is ideological, as the bases will start pushing for independence and deepening left-wing politics, and the other is management.” The best example is San Sebastián and the waste disposal that has led to it lost elections.”
Motion of no confidence in Pamplona
Bildu's arrival at the Pamplona City Council next Thursday will be the crowning achievement of his best electoral year. Joseba Asiron will return to the mayor's office following a motion of no confidence. However, one of the most notable achievements after the last elections was the growth of Bildu, south of Pamplona. The green area of Abertzale stretches from Bilbao to the Ebro in municipalities such as Tafalla, Puente la Reina or Estella, 48 kilometers from Logroño. This newspaper attempted to seek the views of Bildu leaders in these city councils, but they refused to comment.
According to Hedoi Etxarte, one of the owners of the Katakrak bookstore in Pamplona, EH Bildu's expansion to the south has to do with a crisis in the traditional parties. “In recent years, many people in the Basque Country have moved from nationalism to the left; and in Navarre from the left to nationalism,” he summarizes. “Bildu has moderated his speech to grow in areas that previously seemed impossible. Now he is not demanding “independence” but the “right to decide,” says Ricardo Feliú, professor of sociology at the University of Navarra. According to him, EH Bildu associates its presence in the social fabric with institutions, which has led to a paradox: “UPN is threatening to leave the Navarra Municipal Association [en protesta por la moción de censura en Pamplona] and that was something that only Bildu did before, which created its own network (udalbiltza).”
A flag with two arrows facing each other next to the word “etxera” (home), the new logo of the ETA prisoner groups, this Saturday in a house in Otxandio. Daniel Ochoa de Olza
The rain falls in Otxandio. In the fronton, some children finish their ball game and escape to the tobacco shop, on whose counter tobacco, sweets and the picture of Infanta Leonor in the Pronto magazine coexist with the Gara newspaper. Pello Otxandiano claims that his great-grandfather and two brothers of his maternal grandmother died in this bombing in July 1936. Although among the names of the deceased engraved in Andikona Square there is no one with their surname, neither Otxandiano nor Kampo, the new leader The Abertzale Left says that their political consciousness began there. The square, which commemorates the massacre 87 years ago, is a neat, clean and well-designed place with an iron monument commissioned by a well-known sculptor. The second sanctuary, which commemorates the ETA prisoners, is a brick facade with an ugly metal fence into which the dogs urinate.
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