UPN and PP negotiate 'in extremis' to go together on 23-J in Navarra and the PSOE opens the door to govern with Bildu in Pamplona

The leaderships of the Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN) and the PP finalize an agreement to attend together on 23-J after having declared the negotiations broken last Tuesday when the regionalist president Javier Esparza and the general secretary Cuca Gamarra confronted antagonistic proposals. Two days later, Esparza reopened contacts yesterday to recover a coalition that can secure two deputies in Congress and up to three senators.. The 'in extremis' negotiation between the two center-right parties occurs when the PSOE of Navarra is considering supporting the candidacy of Koldo Martínez (Geroa Bai) as mayor of Pamplona who would lead a municipal government with several parties, including EH Bildu.

The call for general elections on 23-J has multiplied the difficulties in the already complex political map in Navarra, the foral community in which UPN won at the polls but in which the Socialist Party of Navarra (PSN) counts with the support of EH Bildu to veto the candidates of the regionalist party. The president of UPN Javier Esparza learned first-hand yesterday of the resounding refusal of president María Chivite (PSN) to seek some kind of agreement and her predisposition to continue relying on Geroa Bai (a coalition in which the PNV is a member) and Contigo Navarra (group of parties led by Podemos) to reissue his investiture.

Hours after the meeting, Esparza transferred to Genoa the proposal to present joint lists to Congress and the Senate with the same formula used in 2015.. A board in which UPN would designate the first two candidates and the PP the third. In the last general elections of 2019 and with the Navarra Suma brand (which also included Ciudadanos), the two Navarrese deputies elected were Sergio Sayas and Carlos García Adanero. Now both are members of the PP of Navarra within a controversial process of breaking with Esparza and joining the ranks of Feijóo's party. In Navarra, 5 deputies to Congress are appointed and in all the elections held so far the winning party has been center-right parties. Esparza has already confirmed that the deputies that the UPN achieves will support the candidacy of Núñez Feijóo as president of the Government.

Esparza's proposal obtained as a response against a counter-offer in which the PP claims the formula used in 2011 that reserves second place on the list for the 'popular' while first and third would be designated by UPN. In the elections of the past 28-M, UPN obtained almost 90,000 votes and the PP exceeded 23,000. But the electoral behavior in Navarra gives priority to the vote for the PP in the general elections, a risk for both parties because their confrontation at the polls could benefit both the PSN -which obtained 67,000 votes in the foral elections- and EH Bildu -with 55,000 supports the 28-M-.

The negotiation between UPN and PP occurs when the PSOE seeks an agreement in the Pamplona City Council to wrest the Mayor's Office from Cristina Ibarrola. Ibarrola, with 9 councilors, won the elections on 28-M and the Navarrese socialists have ratified that they will not support him but neither will they support Joseba Asiron, the EH Bildu candidate who with 8 councilors was the second most voted. The 'third way' advocated by the Socialists would no longer be their own candidate Elma Sáiz but the head of the Geroa list Bai Koldo Martínez.

The Organization Secretary of the PSN and Navarrese deputy Ramón Alzórriz has confirmed today on Radio Euskadi that they are negotiating with Geroa Bai and Contigo Navarra to form an alternative to Ibarrola and has admitted that this 'third way' could be led by Koldo Martínez, who only has two councilors in a municipal plenary session of 27 councilors. Alzórriz has stated that, once he is invested as mayor, Martínez could lead a plural government of which the PSN would be a part without ruling out EH Bildu. Delegations of the Navarrese socialists and the Otegi coalition will meet next week. Alzórriz maintains that there will be no negotiations with Bildu to form joint governments, although he has opened the door to do so indirectly in the Pamplona City Council.