People's Party of the Basque Country

The People's Party of the Basque Country (Spanish: Partido Popular del País Vasco or Partido Popular de Euskadi, PP; Basque: Euskadiko Alderdi Popularra, EAP) is the regional section of the People's Party of Spain (PP) in the Basque Country. It was formed in 1989 from the re-foundation of the People's Alliance.

People's Party of the Basque Country Partido Popular del País Vasco Euskadiko Alderdi Popularra
President	Javier de Andrés
Secretary-General	Amaya Fernández Angulo
Founded	1989
Headquarters	C/ San Antonio 1, 1º Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country
Youth wing	New Generations of the Basque Country
Ideology	Conservatism^[1] Social conservatism Economic liberalism Christian democracy^[1] Spanish nationalism Spanish unionism
Political position	Centre-right to right-wing
National affiliation	People's Party
Regional affiliation	PP+Cs (2020–2023)
Congress of Deputies (Basque seats)	2 / 18 (Basque seats)
Spanish Senate (Basque seats)	0 / 15 (Basque seats)
Basque Parliament	7 / 75
Juntas Generales/Batzar Nagusiak	17 / 153
Local seats	71 / 2,627
Mayors	2 / 251 ^[2]
Website
www.ppvasco.com
Politics of Basque Country

History

It was founded in January 1989 with the birth of the Spanish People's Party, heir of People's Alliance. Its headquarters are located in the Gran Via de Bilbao and is chaired since 2015 by Alfonso Alonso Aranegui.

Electoral performance

Basque Parliament

Basque Parliament
Election	Leading candidate	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
1990	Jaime Mayor Oreja	83,719	8.17 (#5)	6 / 75	4^[a]	Opposition
1994		146,960	14.16 (#4)	11 / 75	5	Opposition
1998	Carlos Iturgaiz	251,743	19.85 (#2)	16 / 75	5	Opposition
2001	Jaime Mayor Oreja	326,933	22.93 (#2)	19 / 75	1^[b]	Opposition
2005	María San Gil	210,614	17.27 (#3)	15 / 75	4	Opposition
2009	Antonio Basagoiti	146,148	13.95 (#3)	13 / 75	2	Confidence and supply
2012		130,584	11.59 (#4)	10 / 75	3	Opposition
2016	Alfonso Alonso	107,771	10.11 (#5)	9 / 75	1	Opposition
2020	Carlos Iturgaiz	Within PP+Cs		4 / 75	5	Opposition
2024	Javier de Andrés	97,149	9.14 (#4)	7 / 75	3	Opposition

Cortes Generales

Election	Basque Country
	Congress				Senate
	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Seats	+/–
1989	103,697	9.37 (#5)	2 / 21	0^[c]	0 / 12	0^[c]
1993	175,758	14.68 (#3)	4 / 19	2	1 / 12	1
1996	231,286	18.34 (#3)	5 / 19	1	3 / 12	2
2000	323,235	28.26 (#2)	7 / 19	2	5 / 12	2
2004	235,785	18.89 (#3)	4 / 19	3	1 / 12	4
2008	209,244	18.53 (#3)	3 / 18	1	1 / 12	0
2011	210,797	17.81 (#4)	3 / 18	0	3 / 12	2
2015	142,127	11.62 (#5)	2 / 18	1	1 / 12	2
2016	148,553	12.87 (#5)	2 / 18	0	1 / 12	0
Apr. 2019	95,041	7.45 (#5)	0 / 18	2	0 / 12	1
Nov. 2019	104,746	8.85 (#5)	1 / 18	1	0 / 12	0
2023	131,789	11.49 (#4)	2 / 18	1	0 / 12	0

European Parliament

European Parliament
Election	Basque Country
	Votes	%	#
1989	73,254	7.61%	6th
1994	158,010	17.48%	3rd
1999	228,688	19.76%	2nd
2004	148,617	21.05%	3rd
2009	117,057	16.03%	3rd
2014	77,583	10.20%	4th
2019	72,274	6.44%	5th

Local Elections of 2007

After the local elections of 2007, the People's Party experienced a setback of almost 60,000 votes in comparison to the local elections of 2003 earning only 153,296 votes(15.78%). The party holds 184 city counselor seats within the Basque country, and the party has the fifth most political power in terms of the number of council seats that they hold, in contrast to the 296 seats they held in 2003. The party governs 4 of the 253 localities of Basque country. Until 2007, they only had governors in the locality of Alava, and following that year, they obtained their first mayoral position in Guipuzcoa. They were challenged by the Basque Nationalist Action(BNA) and the Batasuna parties in the town of Lizarza, the list of the PP was left as the only accepted and with 27 votes (8% of the total votes submitted) they managed to obtain 7 council members and the mayor. The invalid votes were attributed to the BNA and the Basque Nationalist Party (BNP) respectively, reaching 92.39%. In this way, the PP obtained the only mayoral position in Guipuzcoa in its entire history. In Alava, they govern in 4 municipalities: Yecora, where they obtained 51.12% of the votes; Baños de Ebre, where they came in first with 41.63% of the votes, and Lanciego where they had the second most votes, with 35.37%.^[3] In Labastida, they also obtained the most votes, but with a simple majority of 39.14%^[4] which did not permit them to obtain the mayoral position. Nevertheless, a motion in 2009 paused the elections until the mayor of EB and of PP reached an agreement with 2 expelled town council members on the BNP to alternate the mayor position in the locality. In Biscay, there is no governor, and their best result in 2007 was in Guecho, where they received the second most votes with almost a third of the votes accepted(without telling the BNA)^[5]

Local and Regional Elections of 2011

In the local and regional elections of 2011, the PP was far from recovering and gathering the votes they lost to the Basque Socialist Party, and they continued to receive a decline in votes in the Basque Country. The PP lost a little more than 6,500 votes in the last local and regional elections. They obtained 146,763 votes, gaining 13.83% of the vote, which means they had 164 council seats from their party (20 less than the last elections). They did not obtain a single mayoral office in Guipizcoa, nor in Biscay.

Guipúzcoa

The party earned 33,331 votes in Guipuzcoa which was 9.88% of the votes in that region. They obtained 27 council seats in the whole territory(they had won 44 seats in the past election). Their best result was in San Sebastián where they gained 19.51% of the vote and maintained their six council seats. Despite their political position leaving them at second or third in terms of the numbers of votes, they tied for fourth for council members. They had average results in Irun, where they received more than 17% of the votes and five council seats. Despite that, they moved from second to fourth place as a political party, even with a large number of votes for council members. In the rest of the territory, the results they obtained were very modest–the PP did not obtain a significant number of votes—only 10%. The PP had the fourth most political strength in the majority of localities guipuzcoano (led by Bildu, BNP and the Basque Socialist Party(PSE-EE(PSOE))) and on occasions, the leads included Aralar and Hamaikabat. In the elections for the General Assembly in Guipuzcoa, the PP obtained four seats (two less than they obtained in the previous election when they had won six offices). Three General Assembly seats were obtained in the San Sebastian region and a fourth of them in the Bidasoa region, which was the fourth strongest hold for the party in the territory.

Biscay

The party obtained 74,403 votes, which was 15.61% of the vote. They suffered a loss of more than 7,600 votes that they had in the previous election. They obtained 55 council positions in the entire territory (in comparison to the 67 that they had previously had). Their best outcomes were in Bilboa and Guecho, where they maintained second place as a political party. Despite maintaining second place in Bilbao, they suffered a noticeable loss of 6,200 votes, and lost a council seat. In Guecho, they also maintained second place, but again, they lost a council seat from the previous election. In the rest of the localities of Biscay, they obtained a much more contentious result, that grew a left margin of Nervión. Despite everything, the left leaning candidates have demonstrated the capacity to move up to the third or fourth place in terms of number of votes. In the General Assembly Elections in Biscay, the PP was able to stay at third or fourth place, but they maintained their eight General Councils within the legislative house.

Álava

The People's Party won the elections in Alava by a sliver of a margin against the Basque Nationalist Party. Despite losing a little more than 150 votes, the People's Party won a judge seat, thanks to the fall of the Basque Nationalist Party. The same occurred in the mayoral elections in Vitoria. The PP won by fewer than 200 votes, but thanks to the fall of the Basque Nationalist Party, they were able to come in first place in the capital. The party obtained the mayoral office in Vitoria and five more mayoral offices in the regions: Rioja Alvaesa, Baños de Ebro,Labastida, Lagaurdía, Oyón and Yécora. As a result of the support of the PSE-EE/PSOE, the PP won the office of Regional Council of Alava. The boycotting of the two council members of the United Left-Greens(EB-B), who did not want to support the BNP candidate that received votes from the Basque Nationalist Party and the Bildu. The boycotting of the two candidates of the EB-B allowed for the PP to work with the Alavesa Council.

Notes

1. Compared to People's Alliance–Liberal Party totals in the 1986 regional election.
2. Compared to the combined totals of People's Party and Alavese Unity in the 1998 regional election.
3. Compared to People's Coalition totals in the 1986 general election.

References

1. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2020). "Basque Country/Spain". Parties and Elections in Europe.
2. El nuevo escenario municipal en Euskadi. El País. San Sebastián 13 JUN 2015.
3. "Elecciones 27M | elmundo.es". www.elmundo.es. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
4. "Elecciones 27M | elmundo.es". www.elmundo.es. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
5. "Elecciones 27M | elmundo.es". www.elmundo.es. Retrieved 2022-03-03.