PP agrees with EH Bildu in Vitoria and recants due to the controversy that has arisen

Relations between PP and EH Bildu have been normalized in the daily life of Basque politics for more than a decade, although the perception south of the Ebro is very different and contradicts, logically, the popular directive to the PSOE to reach agreements with the Nationalist Alliance. A good example of this is the controversy over the distribution of municipal commissions at Vitoria-Gasteiz City Hall on Friday. The popular parties had agreed with the coalition of abertzale, the first municipal force, but in opposition after the PNV-PSE agreement, presidencies were distributed in these committees. The agreement went into effect for a few hours, until the People’s Party decided to step down in the face of the controversy that arose.

It is common for famous Basques to coincide with EH Bildu in voting in the Basque Parliament, general meetings or municipal councils, even when they approve their projects or bills. A good example was seen in June, when the People’s Party approved a legislative reform to facilitate self-consumption of energy in Basque homes.

Therefore, the agreement came in the first session in the Basque Parliament after the 28-M elections, after the People’s Party had tried to weaken the SWP throughout the electoral campaign for its agreements with EH Bildu in Congress. This happened on Friday in the city council of Vitoria-Gasteiz, in the last meeting before the 23J elections, after a campaign in which the people once again blamed the SWP for its agreements with E.H. Beldo.

In this case, the People’s Party, the third force in the council, agreed with E. H. Bildew, also in opposition, that the Coalition of Apertzal would chair six municipal committees, while the People’s Committees would chair five. Not surprisingly, it is common for opposition groups to chair committees.

The agreement, which in principle had no particular political significance, went unnoticed, until the NWP responded harshly, not to make the agreement ugly for the People’s Party, but to blame EH Bildu for getting along with the masses while criticizing Geltzl’s use of conservative votes in some institutions.

Geltzl’s critiques soon had their derivative in the key to Spanish politics, once it was verified, once again, that the understanding between PP and EH Bildu within the dynamics of Basque politics is a relatively frequent occurrence.

Vitoria-Gasteiz PP chose to back out. The agreement remained a dead letter, though again, indeed, we saw that the people agreed on a daily basis with the second force in the Basque Parliament and in Álava, the first in the city.