Sunday's elections yielded electoral results that made it impossible for the PNV to support a hypothetical investiture of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The answer that the jeltzales were going to give the popular leader had been known even before the end of the scrutiny, once it was verified that he would need Vox to get closer to the possibility of governing. Yesterday morning, the president of the PNV in Bizkaia, Itxaso Atutxa, already ruled out supporting the PP in a radio interview, "for having laundered and legitimized Vox." The Executive of the party, the EBB, ratified this decision shortly after. The president of the EBB, Andoni Ortuzar, finally settled any hint of doubt at the end of the day, once he phoned Feijóo to convey the "refusal of the PNV to start talks in order to facilitate his investiture." Meanwhile, EH Bildu guarantees the yes to Sánchez: "We will not give the right the opportunity to repeat the elections."
Ortuzar's call came after the PP had fueled, yesterday afternoon, the idea that it had contacted the PNV and had not received a 'no' for an answer. From the jeltzale formation they wanted to clarify the situation. As they explained, Feijóo had "tried to contact" Ortuzar throughout the day; finally, upon confirming that the popular ones made it appear that the PNV had not closed that door, the president of the party decided to telephone him at the end of the day.
After calling him, the PNV announced that the door was permanently closed and that there was no possibility of dialogue with a view to an eventual investiture.
In addition, the decision, evident with the electoral results in hand, had been ratified by the party Executive that morning. It was not made public after the meeting, among other things because it was assumed that this option had no route. The clarification came when it was seen that the PP fed the idea that this door was not closed
Speculation about a possible future understanding between the PP and the PNV began with the landing of Núñez Feijóo in Madrid, after the departure of Pablo Casado. The bridges between jeltzales and populares had been broken since the motion of no confidence that, with the indispensable support of the PNV, promoted Pedro Sánchez to Moncloa in the spring of 2018.
Indeed, Feijóo managed to rebuild those bridges and establish a line of communication with the PNV. However, the jeltzales put a precondition to any future understanding from the beginning: Vox could not be in the equation.
The post-electoral agreements of the PP with Vox throughout Spain after the 28-M elections led the PNV to leave the door of a possible understanding with the PP practically closed. There was a loophole left for a hypothetical support. And it depended on what happened on Sunday.
In the event that the PP had achieved an exceptional result, reaching 160 seats, the PNV option could have been activated. This path went through a hypothetical investiture of Núñez Feijóo by a simple majority, without Vox in the equation, and with the sole support of the PNV and some other minority partner. With less than a year to go before elections to the Basque Parliament, it would not have been an easy decision for the PNV. That eventual support, however, would have allowed it to position itself as the party with a political vision that managed to keep the extreme right out, avoid the blockade and, finally, obtain counterparties that would make it politically profitable in the Basque Country.
That scenario was far from occurring on Sunday, and the PNV door was already closed for Feijóo before 10:00 p.m., with the counting advanced. Now, the jeltzales will enter into a dialogue with the PSOE to negotiate the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. The objective is to reach an investiture agreement, a pact like the one they closed in December 2019, although this time they will seek to ensure that it is shielded from possible breaches.
The PNV wants to avoid at all costs a repetition of the dynamics of the last legislature, which forced them to recurringly renegotiate issues already agreed upon in the investiture pact. The Basque nationalists, moreover, will be demanding in matters such as full compliance, four decades later, with the Statute of Gernika, an issue they agreed upon four years ago and which, although significant transfers occurred, was far from materializing. In addition, Itxaso Atutxa yesterday asked the PSOE for "strategic decisions on the Basque Country and Catalonia", while pointing out that Sánchez knows what "the Basque agenda" is.
Meanwhile, EH Bildu has already made it clear that it will facilitate the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and that they will not give "the right the opportunity to repeat elections." This was stated by Oskar Matute in an interview in El Correo. On Canal Red he insisted yesterday in the same terms: “It would not make sense that if we have been saying throughout the campaign that we aspire to represent the best values of anti-fascism in the face of reactionary threats, now we would put a price on a hypothetical vote. We do not do it. Another thing is what is going to happen in the legislature (…), we are going to push around laws, budgets, not on the investiture”.
