The former mayor of Vitoria between 2015 and 2023, Gorka Urtaran, is being proposed by the critical bases of the PNV of Álava as an alternative candidate for the presidency of the party in the territory. The apparatus had advocated the name of Jone Berriozabal as a replacement for José Antonio Suso, who is retiring from the front line of politics. The scope of the maneuver will be measured this Wednesday, when the four ‘batzokis’ of Vitoria vote, although the attempt has already obtained some support in the municipal organizations of the towns of the province that have already begun to vote. At the moment, thirteen results are known with twelve victories for Berriozabal and one for Urtaran, a very clear difference, although two ‘batzokis’ are enough to advance to the second round.
Urtaran (Vitoria, 1973) is now a regional deputy for Social Policies within the Government of Ramiro González. It was his destiny after being selected as a PNV candidate for the 2023 municipal elections. In a risky bet, Suso’s team opted for a replacement in the capital and opted for Iñigo Urkullu’s advisor Beatriz Artolazabal. The result took the nationalists from first to fourth force surpassed by EH Bildu, PSE-EE and PP. The critical sector of the party, still identified now with former president Iñaki Gerenabarrena and other historical figures such as Pilar García de Salazar, has found a well-known figure with political weight as a reference.
Precisely Urtaran emerged in the PNV in an internal process with great fracture. It was the preview of the 2011 municipal elections and the ‘De Miguel case’ of corruption had broken out in Gerenabarrena, with three of his most direct collaborators indicted. The trio, Alfredo de Miguel, Koldo Ochandiano and Aitor Tellería, ended up in prison years later. The critics at the time, who are now the majority sector, proposed Malentxo Arruabarrena as an alternative candidate in Vitoria to the official Ramiro González. The schism was resolved with a neutral third party, Urtaran, son of the historic María Jesús Aguirre and political godson of the mayor for decades, José Ángel Cuerda. González directed his career to the General Meetings and ended up as general deputy. Arruabarrena became director of the Ertzaintza academy in Arkaute.
The PNV has already begun the double round process for the renewal of its territorial directorates. Then, again with two votes, the national executive, the Euzkadi Buru Batzar, will be formed. With the future of Andoni Ortuzar in the air, it is already known that in addition to Suso, the presidents of Gipuzkoa, Joseba Egibar, and of Bizkaia, Itxaso Atutxa, are leaving their positions. The official candidates to replace them are headed by María Eugenia Arrizabalaga and Iñigo Ansola, respectively, but there are also critical currents. In Bizkaia, the alternative plan of the unknown militant David Salinas-Armendariz has emerged and in a ‘batzoki’ in Donostia, according to ‘Gara’, the city’s mayor, Eneko Goia, has received more support than Arrizabalaga. In Navarra the forecast is that Unai Hualde, who is also the president of Parliament, will continue.
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