The Central Electoral Board (JEC) has refused to grant the requests of the far-right Vox to remove three EH Bildu candidates from the general elections on November 29 and promote an investigation into the outlawing of the coalition. The body has responded to Santiago Abascal's party that it lacks the authority to adopt such measures.
The decision represents a setback for Vox's attempt to bring its offensive against the abertzale left to the electoral authority in the midst of the pre-campaign. The far-right had singled out Floren Aoiz, Sonia Jacinto, and Marije Fullaondo, to whom it attributed alleged "blood crimes," and demanded their exclusion from the candidacies.
In its agreement, adopted this Thursday, the JEC reminds that it is the provincial electoral boards that are responsible for examining the lists and verifying whether their members meet the legal requirements to be elected. Therefore, the central body has not ruled on the individual eligibility of the three candidates; it has explained that this verification corresponds to the provincial boards.
The Board adds that, if Vox disagrees with the decision adopted by these bodies regarding the proclamation of candidacies, it may resort to the electoral-administrative appeal. The lists are being examined as part of the procedure prior to the elections.
The JEC also does not accept the request to investigate a possible outlawing of EH Bildu. For this, it refers Vox to the Law on Political Parties, which reserves to a special chamber of the Supreme Court the judicial declaration of illegality and dissolution of a party and establishes who can initiate such a procedure. "The Central Electoral Board lacks the authority to agree to open an investigation aimed at outlawing a political party," concludes the body, adding that, if it found evidence of a crime, it could bring it to the attention of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
The candidates singled out by Vox and their judicial processes
The three leaders whom Vox wanted to remove have different trajectories and judicial records. The resolutions concerning them do not allow their cases to be presented as if they were a single conviction for blood crimes, despite the accusation used by Abascal's party.
Floren Aoiz heads EH Bildu's candidacy for the Senate for Navarra. He was convicted in 1997 along with other members of the National Board of Herri Batasuna for collaboration with an armed group, but the Constitutional Court annulled those convictions in 1999. Later, in 2014, he received a one-year and six-month sentence for integration into a terrorist organization in the 'herriko tabernas' case.
Sonia Jacinto, candidate for the Senate for Gipuzkoa, was convicted in the Bateragune case, in which Arnaldo Otegi was also tried. However, the European Court of Human Rights concluded in 2018 that the accused had not been tried by an impartial tribunal. The Supreme Court annulled the sentence and agreed to repeat the trial, but the Constitutional Court later prevented a new hearing, considering that the sentences had already been served and they could not be tried again for the same facts.
For her part, Marije Fullaondo, elected deputy for Bizkaia in 2023, was sentenced to two years in prison and disqualified from holding public office at the municipal level for integration into a terrorist organization, in relation to her activity on the National Board of the outlawed Batasuna. Fullaondo is again listed as number two on the list for Congress for Bizkaia, behind Oskar Matute, according to the candidacies presented by the coalition. Her case is the only one of the three pointed out by Vox that affects a candidacy for the Lower House; Aoiz and Jacinto are running for the Senate.
EH Bildu faces 29N with six deputies and options to grow
The offensive by the far-right Vox comes in elections in which EH Bildu aims to strengthen its representation in Congress and maintain its capacity for influence in state politics. The sovereignist coalition was one of the parliamentary supports that allowed the investiture of Pedro Sánchez in 2023 and has backed various social measures during the legislature.
In those general elections, it obtained six deputies and 333,362 votes. It secured two seats in Gipuzkoa, two more in Bizkaia, one in Álava, and one in Navarra. The growth in Bizkaia allowed it to add one representative compared to the previous elections and surpass the PNV in the total number of deputies by incorporating the Navarrese seat.
The prospects for 29N point to a tight contest. Some polls place EH Bildu around seven seats, one more than in 2023, although other projections keep it at six. These are estimates subject to the margin of error and the distribution in each constituency, so growth is not guaranteed.
The coalition faces the election with a renewal of its lists. Mertxe Aizpurua, Jon Iñarritu, and Bel Pozueta do not repeat as candidates, while Matute heads the list for Congress for Bizkaia, Mikel Otero for Álava, and Oihana Etxebarrieta for Gipuzkoa.
EH Bildu's result will be relevant for the formation of majorities after 29N, especially if PSOE and Frente Amplio again need support from other forces to achieve investiture. Its weight will depend both on the seats it obtains and on the distribution among all parties and the agreements that can be reached after the elections.
In Euskadi, the coalition also comes to this election after having obtained 27 seats in the 2024 regional elections, the same as the PNV, although the jeltzales achieved more votes and retained the Basque Government through their agreement with the PSE-EE. In Navarra, EH Bildu maintains its own representation and aims to retain the deputy obtained in 2023.
