As on all election nights, 28 May was a night of contrasting moods between the different party headquarters. There was joy at EH Bildu (the left, pro-independence party*), controlled satisfaction at the PSE and PSN and mixed feelings at the PNV (the dominant moderate nationalist party which traditionally rules the Basque autonomous region).

(The elections were for the Parliament of Nafarroa and the county parliaments of the Basque autonomous region provinces of Araba. Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa.)

EH Bildu achieved excellent results all over the electoral map. (Before the election, rival parties had attacked EH Bildu for standing former ETA prisoners as candidates.) The party continues to rise, without having been punished either for having supported most of the Spanish government's most important bills (in the Madrid parliament), or for having tried hard to change many others. It continues to forge ahead because it talks about the future, not the past. This was in fact one of the factors in Sinn Féin's success in the Irish general elections: the future.

At the other end of the electoral panorama are the PNV's qualitatively poor results. It remains the largest force in Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia and Álava taken together, but not even the party's most pessimistic forecasts augured a decline in results like yesterday's, results that place it in a difficult predicament in several institutions and needing the support of the PP (the right, Spanish party) to assure the top positions in the Gipuzkoa provincial authority and several town halls.

Navarra and Pamplona grabbed much of the attention yesterday. The break-up of Navarra Suma weakened the right as a whole, potentially opening the door to a win by the EH Bildu candidate, Joseba Asiron (former mayor of Irina-Pamplona who has spoken in Belfast). He did not manage it, but he came very close.

The triumph of Cristina Ibarrola, head of the UPN (right, anti-Basque language party) list in Pamplona, brought a certain relief to the PSN (Nationalist party of the Navarra autonomous region. Basques regard Navarra as part of the Euskal Hernia territory headquarters). The PSN candidate, seeing a possible victory for UPN, had repeated time and again that on 17th June she would vote for herself at the plenary meeting of the new city council to elect the new mayor.

Basque Country - Euskadi
2Gallery

Basque Country - Euskadi

If Asiron had won, and Saiz had kept to her word as given many times during the campaign, history teacher (Asiron) would have been the new mayor of the old capital city.

Of course the poor results of the PSOE (ruling socialist party) in Spain make it hard for the PSN, even though the progressive vote turned out in Pamplona yesterday to support Asiron. However, the decision will be taken at PSOE headquarters in Madrid, as Navarra has always been of symbolic importance in Spanish politics.

The elections to the parliament of Navarra confirmed that, as expected, EH Bildu had overtaken Geroa Bai. Yesterday was a big day for the group whose main leaders are Uxue Barkos and Koldo Martínez, who will probably be making way for a younger generation.

One of the biggest shocks of the night was delivered by Maddalen Iriarte, EH Bildu candidate for the Gipuzkoa provincial authority, who beat PNV candidate Eider Mendoza comfortably.

EH Bildu achieved very good results in Gipuzkoa province, with both campaigns - that for town halls and the provincial elections - working smoothly and well. The PNV had put much of its campaigning effort into Gipuzkoa province, as shown by the number of campaign visits by lehendakari (Basque first minister) Iñigo Urkullu. In the next few days Iriarte, as the winner, will have to begin the round of negotiations to put together a majority in the Gipuzkoa provincial authority, something that will not be easy.

One of the biggest surprises of the night took place in Vitoria (capital of the Basque autonomous region) - and it was a double surprise. The forecast of close results for the PNV, PSE, EH Bildu and PP came true, but few expected PNV candidate Beatriz Artolazabal to come fourth. In view of the results, removing Gorka Urturan from the position of mayor does not seem to have been a good idea. It must be hard to come behind the PP in 2023.

EH Bildu triumphed in the elections in Vitoria by continuing on the path it had set out on in the previous elections. Of all the provincial capitals of the Basque Country within the borders of Spain, Vitoria is the one with the highest percentage of young people.

Bizkaia was the province where the least significant change was expected, due to the enormous power built up over the years. Even so, it did not make up for the fall in votes suffered by the PNV in other regions, which cannot be explained simply by abstention, even though Andoni Ortuzar tried to argue this yesterday.

Elkarrekin Podemos (Spanish party of the left) managed to hold out, even though it was fairly obvious it would be one of the groups affected by the rise of Bildu.

(Below, Arnaldo Otegi, leader of EH Bildu, himself banned by the Spanish Government from standing in elections, addresses voters.)

In the light of yesterday's results, the PNV should think about whether it ought to keep as firmly as it has so far to its strategy of allying with the PSE only, even if this alliance might result in one of the two taking the mayor's job in towns where neither of them came first. Close examination of yesterday's results will reveal whether this position is profitable or not.

Time will tell whether yesterday's results presage a change in trends or whether they were a flash in the pan.

*Comments in brackets are added by belfastmedia.com editors.