The new candidate for Bizkaia, center of attention in the Alderdi
Thousands of people fill the Foronda campaigns and recover the PNV party, the first without restrictions in two years
«Let’s see… those of Juntas and Diputación! All together”. One of the Alderdi Eguna volunteers thus organized, shortly before twelve, the queue for the traditional entrance parade before the members. He did it surrounded by the thousands of people who have once again packed the fields of Foronda this Sunday in the first Alderdi Eguna without restrictions after two years of pandemic. “It was time to be able to get together and we are going to be lucky because in the end it does not rain,” commented Ana Otadui, president of the Boards, shortly before starting. The party has re-proposed her as a candidate. “I’m happy. Now we have to see what the bases say », she commented.
The parade, thought to the millimeter, corresponds to transfer the image of unity that the jeltzales like so much. Take the Bizkaia Provincial Council as an example, where Unai Rementeria will not be eligible for re-election and Elixabete Etxanobe will be the candidate. The group paraded together, Rementeria and Etxanobe shoulder to shoulder, with Ana Otadui, president of the Boards, on one side and on the other the two general deputies, Markel Olano (Gipuzkoa) and Ramiro González (Álava). After them, several members of the current Government Team such as José María Iruarrizaga, Lorea Bilbao, Imanol Pradales, Sergio Murillo and Ainara Basurko.
There are many who still do not know Elixabete Etxanobe, but in the previous huddles she was one of the centers of attention. She was accompanied by the regional deputy Imanol Pradales, and some of her advisers, such as Beatriz Artolazabal, went on to give her two kisses and congratulate her. Rementeria took a farewell-flavored crowd shower during the parade, drawing applause as she passed. She responded by waving and thanking. There was an anecdote. She recognized her predecessor, José Luis Bilbao, in the crowd. They both nodded at each other and Bilbao raised his hands to applaud him.
The groups that formed previously in the Organization tent showed the illusion that this festive event arouses after two very hard years and even more so when they saw that the sun was going to accompany them in the central act, which started at twelve. In the group of the burukides was the president of the BBB, Itxaso Atutxa, with the secretary of the EBB, Mireia Zarate. Andoni Ortuzar, a speech that is always the most anticipated by the members, greeted right and left near Aitor Esteban and whose adviser Bingen Zupiria. Over there were the representatives of the diaspora like Aitor Eyheraguibel, accompanied by his wife and both wrapped in Argentine flags. They have been based in Hernani since 2003 and they met at the Basque club in Montevideo. “We will spend the day, we will eat. We come every year,” they said.
This is a party for everyone, with 25 txosnas and 140 dining rooms serving 20,000 meals. Especially, surely, for EGI, the youth of the party. Iñigo González Mancisidor has spent the entire weekend in the fields of Foronda, “with some cold in the tent, but fortunately without rain.” «Here there are two parts, the formative and the festive. On Saturday we were listening to Iñigo Urkullu in a workshop and then there was a party », he acknowledged. “Drinking something together, meeting people we haven’t seen for two years is very good. And it is important to realize that we are much more than we think. The PNV has a quarry and we want to work for our country », he added.