EH Bildu is drawing up its Congress slate for the 29 November election without Mertxe Aizpurua. She will leave Congress after three legislatures and retire from parliamentary politics. Oskar Matute plans to seek another term.
Her decision brings her three legislatures in Congress to a close and removes one of the coalition’s two most visible parliamentary voices. EFE and Spanish media reports say Aizpurua, who is 66, described the move as the end of a political stage. She plans to retire from parliamentary activity after seven years in the lower house.
The announcement shifts attention to EH Bildu’s next parliamentary team. The electoral date and coalition arrangement remain unchanged. EH Bildu holds six seats in Congress and five in the Senate. Four senators were elected directly, while one holds a seat through regional designation. El Correo and EFE describe Aizpurua’s decision as personal, rather than the result of a change in the coalition’s political line.
The party has opened the process of updating candidacies in the three historic territories of the Basque Country. Members are expected to ratify the final slates later. Aizpurua’s withdrawal was announced before the lists were formally completed.
The Senate process is proceeding separately. EH Bildu has an existing coalition arrangement with ERC, reported alongside preparations for the election. The pact concerns the upper house as the party renews its Congress list, as earlier reporting on the Senate agreement noted.
Aizpurua has represented Gipuzkoa in the general elections of 2019 and 2023. In 2019, there were two votes, and her parliamentary career began that year. Before entering Congress, she built a political career in local government and held organisational roles within the Basque pro-independence movement. Diario Vasco reports that she will continue carrying out parliamentary duties in the Permanent Deputation of Congress alongside Matute after the dissolution of the Cortes, until the current legislature formally ends.
Born in Usurbil in 1960, Aizpurua trained as a journalist and worked at Egin and Gara. When the Bildu coalition was created in 2011, she became mayor of Usurbil for one legislature. During that period, she also led Udalbiltza, the pro-independence alternative to the municipal association Eudel. She directed Gara from 1999 to 2004 and worked in Basque-language media.
Her institutional record also includes a 2025 meeting at La Moncloa with the president of the Spanish Government. She was the first representative of the Basque pro-independence left to meet a Spanish prime minister there. Representatives of that political tradition had previously met the head of state.
Some publications have reported that Aizpurua was convicted in 1984 in a case involving the justification of terrorism. EFE’s confirmation did not mention the allegation, and the reports cited no judicial primary source for it.
EH Bildu must now complete its Congress and Senate proposals and submit them to its bases for ratification. Aizpurua’s departure changes the party’s parliamentary representation, while its six Congress seats and Senate pact with ERC remain part of the election structure. Matute intends to run again, information from the reports.
