The last two appointments with the polls have left a complicated political panorama for UPN, whose journey in the desert will last four more years. The re-election of María Chivite as president of Navarra will seat the regionalist formation in the opposition for one more legislature, so that in principle she will have been away from the Palacio de Navarra for 12 years. It is too long for a party that was the owner and lord of Navarre politics between 1996 and 2015. The internal tensions are evident and the idea of modulating its policy of pacts begins to gain weight, even looking at Geroa Bai.
This possible approach to Basqueism and the more moderate Basque nationalism breaks a red line that UPN has not traveled until now. It must be taken into account that this regionalist formation arose in 1979 as a formulation of the Navarrese right that was characterized, fundamentally, by its opposition to Basque nationalism and the 4th Transitory Provision of the Constitution, which makes possible the integration of Navarre into a Basque community. to four, together with Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa. UCD and Alianza Popular were in the agreement on the Transitory, so that UPN emerged as an alternative to that position in the field of the right.
Although UPN had moderately Basque leaders, such as Juan Cruz Alli -who would end up founding a new party, the CDN-, the formation has been characterized by its visceral opposition to Basqueism, Basque nationalism and independence.
The greatest exponent of these positions was Miguel Sanz, president of the party and of Navarra between 1996 and 2009. Curiously, now it has been the former president himself who has been in charge of opening the debate on the pacts with Geroa Bai, in an interview published in Diario de Navarra.
Sanz proposes opening up to agreements with the Basque coalition in matters such as Education or Taxation, without outright ruling out coalition agreements in the future. "Any pact with Geroa Bai should be made making it clear what UPN's position is in relation to the institutional project for Navarra," he qualifies.
The same medium that published the interview with Sanz has asked Esparza this Tuesday about this possibility, and the answer delves into the direction marked by Sanz. “I have already agreed with Geroa Bai in the last legislature. We are already doing it. We spoke with Geroa Bai, as with the PSN or the PP, ”indicates the UPN leader, who has already announced that he will not repeat as a candidate.
Esparza also points out that the "red line" of his formation is EH Bildu. “When I say that we have to be able to articulate agreements with everyone, it is with everyone except Bildu. With the other UPN you have to understand. Either we are capable of speaking and agreeing with others and breaking the dynamic of blocks in which they want to perpetuate us, or it is very difficult for us to return to the Government. And it is a job that is already being done ”, he expresses.
This change of perspective is eloquent of the situation that UPN is going through, of the complicated electoral arithmetic that works in Navarra and, also, of the extent to which the identity debate in the foral community has been tempered.
The regionalist formation is not capable of reaching far-reaching agreements beyond the space of the Navarrese right, which went to the elections on May 28 divided into four formations. UPN, PP, Vox and Ciudadanos. The sum of these formations is far from the majority, whether they run in the elections as a coalition (Navarra Suma) or run separately, as in the last elections, so that the regionalists continue in the opposition.
The alternative to the unsuccessful union of the right-wing had been for UPN to try to attract the Navarrese PSOE (PSN), returning to a formula of understanding that, with its ups and downs, was maintained until 2015. The Socialists, however, definitively changed their strategy in 2019, after their agreements with UPN took them to their electoral soil and they saw how the Basque Uxue Barkos governed (2015-2019) without the socialist contest being necessary to form a government of a progressive nature.
The socialist María Chivite came to power for the first time in 2019, and on August 15 she was re-elected, within a coalition government with Geroa Bai and Contigo/Zurekin (Podemos, IU and Batzarre). EH Bildu abstained in the investiture session.
The Socialists are comfortable in this new strategy, endorsed by their electorate in the electoral appointments of May 28 and July 23, so that the need for UPN to think of a third alternative to get closer to power opens up. And that is where you could look at Geroa Bai, a Basque coalition formed by the PNV and Geroa Socialverdes.
Former President Miguel Sanz has broken the taboo, and Javier Esparza suggests that this path is already being paved. It is evident, however, that in order to follow this path successfully, UPN will have to modulate its discourse, both on a social level and in terms of its position with respect to plurality in Navarra or the place occupied by the Basque language and culture Basque.
Although the political cultures of UPN and Geroa Bai may seem antithetical, the truth is that it would suffice to look at the time of Juan Cruz Alli, a supporter of the Euskadi-Navarra Common Body or the promotion of the Basque language, to find ground for agreement. It remains to be seen if the Navarrese right, which at the beginning of the 20th century had many Basque elements, returns to its rights a century later.
