Former Lehendakari José Antonio Ardanza died this Monday at the age of 82. He was lehendakari for the PNV from 1985 to 1999, the longest presidency in Euskadi, and during his mandate he promoted the Ajuria Enea Pact. Born in Elorrio, he was a Jeltzale sympathizer since his youth. He was lehendakari after Carlos Garaikoetxea and before the period of Juan José Ibarretxe. Two years before being elected Lehendakari, in 1983, he was deputy general of Gipuzkoa. He was also mayor of Arrasate after winning the 1979 elections.
The unexpected death of Ardanza, who had been ill for some time, has shaken the Basque electoral campaign. He has been the Euskadi representative par excellence of the pact between different people. After the split of institutional nationalism between the PNV and EA, Ardanza was the architect of the agreement between different parties between the PNV and the PSE. The first vice president of the coalition was the socialist Ramón Jáuregui. The jeltzales had been affected after the split led by Carlos Garaikoetxea, which had as a background the controversial debate on the Historical Territories Law.
Ardanza also forcefully led the mobilization against ETA, which he channeled through the Ajuria Enea Pact, in which clear differences were marked with the radical world not only in the means but also in the ends.
After his retirement from active politics, Ardanza became involved in the business world as president of Euskaltel.
Born in Elorrio in 1941, he studied Law at the University of Deusto, in Bilbao, and worked for years as an advisor to the Caja Laboral. In 1979, he made the leap into active politics.
The PNV has expressed its “great pain and sadness” after hearing the news and has conveyed its condolences to his wife, Mari Glori Urteaga, and his children Nagore and Aitor.
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