A regional election was held in the Basque Country on 12 July 2020 to elect the 12th Parliament of the autonomous community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election. It was held concurrently with a regional election in Galicia. The election was initially scheduled for 5 April 2020 but was postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 4 February 2020, Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu had discussed holding a snap election within a cabinet meeting, fulfilling a legal requirement previous to any election call and sparking speculation that a regional election was imminent. Six days later, on 10 February, Urkullu confirmed the election for 5 April, seeking to distance himself from the convoluted political landscape in Catalonia after a 2020 election in the region was announced by Catalan president Quim Torra. The announcement of the Basque election prompted Galician president Alberto Núñez Feijóo to trigger a snap election in Galicia as well. However, on 16 March it was announced that the vote would be postponed for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, shortly after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's declaration of a nationwide lockdown in the country starting on the previous day.
Urkullu's Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) maintained its status as the largest party in the Basque Parliament with its best result since 1984, which coupled to an increase in support of one seat for the centre-left Socialist Party of the Basque Country–Basque Country Left (PSE-EE)—its coalition partner during the previous legislature—allowed Urkullu to establish a majority coalition government. The left-wing regional nationalist EH Bildu topped its best historical result, benefitting from the collapse of the United We Can–United Left (Elkarrekin Podemos) alliance, which lost nearly half its support. The PP+Cs alliance compromising both the People's Party (PP) and Citizens (Cs) lost roughly half of the seats won by the PP in the 2016 election, although Cs entered the regional parliament for the first time with 2 seats whereas the PP was allocated the alliance's remaining 4. The far-right Spanish unionist Vox entered the Parliament for the first time with one seat. Equo was not able to secure parliamentary representation after having won one seat as a member of the Elkarrekin Podemos alliance in 2016.
Overview Under the 1979 Statute of Autonomy, the Basque Parliament was the unicameral legislature of the Basque Autonomous Community, having legislative power in devolved matters, as well as the ability to grant or withdraw confidence from a lehendakari.. The electoral and procedural rules were supplemented by national law provisions..
Date The term of the Basque Parliament expired four years after the date of its previous election, unless it was dissolved earlier. The election decree was required to be issued no later than 25 days before the scheduled expiration date of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country (BOPV), with election day taking place 54 days after the decree's publication.; . The previous election was held on 25 September 2016, which meant that the chamber's term would have expired on 25 September 2020. The election decree was required to be published in the BOPV no later than 1 September 2020, setting the latest possible date for election day on 25 October 2020.
The lehendakari had the prerogative to dissolve the Basque Parliament at any given time and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process.. In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a lehendakari within a 60-day period from the Parliament's reconvening, the chamber was to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called..
On 4 February 2020, it was revealed that Iñigo Urkullu was considering holding a snap election within a short timeframe and that he had fulfilled legal requirements for it by raising such hypothesis within a cabinet meeting, with 5 April being regarded as the most likely date. The decision of Catalan president Quim Torra on 29 January to announce a snap Catalan regional election to be held at some point throughout 2020 was said to have raised concerns within Urkullu's government, as the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) sought to prevent the next Basque regional election from being held simultaneously to prevent any interference from the Catalan political debate into the Basque campaign.
Asked in a plenary session of parliament on 7 February on whether he would be dissolving the chamber within the following days, Urkullu refused to either explicitly confirm or reject such hypothesis, but asked opposition parties for a commitment to approve as many legislation as possible "now and in the future". Sources within the Basque government pointed out that, for an election to be held on 5 April, the dissolution decree would have to be published in the BOPV on 11 February, and that if a snap election was to be eventually called the announcement of it happening could be delayed up to that day. Finally, Urkullu confirmed on 10 February the election date for 5 April, with the subsequent dissolution of parliament to be made official on the next day.
The Basque Parliament was officially dissolved on 11 February 2020 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOPV.. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the election's original date was suspended on 17 March,. with it being rescheduled for 12 July 2020 on 18 May after the easing of virus spreading conditions and a reduction in the infection rate, resulting in the lockdown established by the state of alarm lasting from 15 March to 21 June..
Electoral system Voting for the Parliament was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in the Basque Country and with full political rights, provided that they had not been deprived of the right to vote by a final sentence.; ( by ). Additionally, non-resident citizens were required to apply for voting, a system known as "begged" voting ()..
The Basque Parliament had 75 seats. All were elected in three multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, each of which was assigned a fixed number of 25 seats to provide for an equal parliamentary representation of the three provinces—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency.; ; , and . The use of this electoral method resulted in a higher effective threshold depending on district magnitude and vote distribution.
The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacant seats; instead, any vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term were filled by the next candidates on the party lists or, when required, by designated substitutes. ( by ).
Outgoing parliament The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.
+ Parliamentary composition in February 2020 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total Basque Nationalists Parliamentary Group EAJ/PNV 28 28 EH Bildu Parliamentary Group EH Bildu 18 18 United We Can Parliamentary Group Podemos 8 11 EzAn–IU 2 Equo 1 Basque Socialists Parliamentary Group PSE–EE (PSOE) 9 9 Basque People's Parliamentary Group PP 9 9
Parties and candidates The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within 10 days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list. ( by ). Additionally, a balanced composition of men and women was required in the electoral lists, so that candidates of either sex made up at least 40 percent of the total composition..
Below is a list of the main parties and alliances which contested the election:
Candidacy Parties andalliances Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats EAJ/PNV Iñigo Urkullu Basque nationalismChristian democracySocial democracy 37.4% EH Bildu Maddalen Iriarte Basque independenceAbertzale leftSocialism 21.1% ElkarrekinPodemos–IU Miren Gorrotxategi Left-wing populismDirect democracyDemocratic socialism 14.8% EquoBerdeak–Verdes José Ramón Becerra Green politics PP+Cs Carlos Iturgaiz ConservatismLiberalism 12.1% PSE–EE(PSOE) Idoia Mendia Social democracy 11.9% Vox None Right-wing populismUltranationalismNational conservatism 0.1%
In August 2018, Pilar Zabala, the leader of Elkarrekin Podemos, announced that she would not seek reelection and would leave politics by the end of the legislature. Ahead of the election, Equo was excluded from the coalition after the party had broken up with the Unidas Podemos nationwide alliance to join Más País in the lead up to the November 2019 Spanish general election.
Alfonso Alonso had been initially scheduled to repeat as the leading candidate for the People's Party (PP) in the regional election, having been confirmed for the post on 10 February 2020. However, the negotiation of a coalition with Citizens (Cs) which the Basque PP received with heavy criticism, amid claims of having been overruled and swept aside by the party's national leadership in the coalition talks, triggered an internal clash which led national PP leader Pablo Casado to force Alonso's removal as candidate on 23 February and propose Carlos Iturgaiz for the post instead.
Campaign Timetable The key dates are listed below (all times are CET):
10 February: The election decree is issued with the countersign of the lehendakari, after deliberation in the Government. 11 February: Formal dissolution of parliament. 17 March: Election postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic; all election procedures and preparations are suspended until further notice. 18 May: The election decree is newly issued with the countersign of the lehendakari, after deliberation in the Government. 19 May: Start of prohibition period on the inauguration of public works, services or projects. 22 May: Initial constitution of historical territory and zone electoral commissions with judicial members. 25 May: Division of constituencies into polling sections and stations. 29 May: Deadline for parties and federations to report on their electoral alliances. 1 June: Deadline for electoral register consultation for the purpose of possible corrections. 8 June: Deadline for parties, federations, alliances, and groupings of electors to present electoral lists. 10 June: Publication of submitted electoral lists in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country (BOPV). 13 June: Deadline for non-resident citizens (electors residing abroad (CERA) and citizens temporarily absent from Spain) to apply for voting. 15 June: Official proclamation of validly submitted electoral lists. 16 June: Publication of proclaimed electoral lists in the BOPV. 17 June: Deadline for the selection of polling station members by sortition. 25 June: Deadline for the appointment of non-judicial members to historical territory and zone electoral commissions. 26 June: Official start of electoral campaigning.. 2 July: Deadline to apply for postal voting. 7 July: Start of legal ban on electoral opinion polling publication; deadline for CERA citizens to vote by mail. 8 July: Deadline for postal and temporarily absent voting. 10 July: Last day of electoral campaigning; deadline for CERA voting. 11 July: Official election silence ("reflection day"). 12 July: Election day (polling stations open at 9 am and close at 8 pm or once voters present in a queue at/outside the polling station at 8 pm have cast their vote); provisional vote counting.