Urkullu calls the Basque elections on April 21

VITORIA, 22 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, has called the next Basque regional elections for April 21 in a public appearance held this Thursday afternoon at the Lehendakaritza headquarters after the Government Council.

The elections in Euskadi have been announced once the Galician elections have concluded, and will be held almost a month and a half before the European elections on June 9. The Lehendakari's intention has always been to preserve Euskadi from the contagion of the "political noise of Madrid", especially on this occasion when the European Parliament elections are considered in the State as a second round of the general elections.

After the meeting of the Government Council was suspended last Tuesday due to the critical condition of Iñigo Urkullu's mother, who died that afternoon, it met this Thursday at 5:00 p.m. At the meeting, Iñigo Urkullu informed his advisors of the date of the elections, before announcing it publicly.

At 6:30 p.m., the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, appeared before the media at the Lehendakaritza headquarters, where he announced the holding of the next elections on April 21.

The Official Gazette of the Basque Country (BOPV) will publish the election decree signed by Urkullu next Tuesday, February 27, with the mandatory 54 days in advance established by Law, and the deadlines for the electoral process will begin to run.

In this way, the Chamber will be dissolved, although the Basque Executive will continue with its activity, since it will not take office until the Basques go to the polls to elect the 75 parliamentarians, 25 for each historical territory of the Basque Autonomous Community.

The electoral campaign would begin on April 5, the Friday of Easter Week. Precisely, on April 5 four years ago the previous elections in Euskadi should have been held, but the restrictions decreed by the pandemic prevented them from taking place on that date, and they were finally called for July 12, 2020. Therefore, The call now does not represent an electoral advance in itself.

Currently, the Basque Parliament is made up of 31 representatives from the PNV, 21 from EH Bildu, 10 from the PSE-EE, 6 from Elkarrekin Podemos, 6 from PP-Cs and one from Vox.

This is the third and last term of Iñigo Urkullu as Lehendakari, since he will not repeat as the PNV candidate for Lehendakaritza. Urkullu (Alonsotegi, 1961) has been at the head of the Basque Government for twelve years, since 2012. After a first term of Government alone, in 2016 he achieved a coalition agreement with the PSE-EE, then led by Idoia Mendia.

At the end of his second term, he had to manage such difficult moments in Euskadi as the collapse of the Zaldibar landfill and Covid-19. Re-elected as Lehendakari for a third term in the summer of 2020, he was sworn in for the third time in Gernika with the challenge of recovering the Basque economy after the pandemic, to which was added the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis.

Although the PNV and PSE-EE Executive have an absolute majority, in the Basque Parliament they have managed to agree with the rest of the parties on many of the 60 laws approved in the last term.

In recent years the Basque Government has achieved eleven new powers, has expanded the Economic Agreement and renewed the Quota Law. In addition, it is on the verge of receiving three other new transfers, those of Cercanías railways, homologation of university degrees and reception of migrants, committed for this first quarter of the year.

The recovery of Osakidetza after the impact of Covid-19 - which has caused social mobilizations - is another of the objectives that the Lehendakari set, and for which he is now implementing initiatives and investments.