Mertxe Aizpurua will leave Congress after three legislatures and retire from parliamentary politics. Oskar Matute plans to run again as EH Bildu prepares its lists for the 29 November election.
The next election will be held on 29 November, with EH Bildu preparing its Congress slate without Mertxe Aizpurua.
Her decision ends three legislatures in Congress and removes one of the coalition’s two most visible parliamentary voices. Oskar Matute plans to seek another term. According to EFE and Spanish media reports, Aizpurua, who is 66, described the move as the end of a political stage and plans to retire from parliamentary activity after seven years in the lower house.
The announcement shifts attention to EH Bildu’s next parliamentary team. It does not change the electoral date or the coalition arrangement. 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.
Aizpurua has represented Gipuzkoa in Congress since 2019 and, together with Oskar Matute, became one of EH Bildu’s most recognisable parliamentary figures.
The party has already opened the process for updating candidacies in the three historic territories of the Basque Country. Its members are expected to ratify the final slates later. Aizpurua’s withdrawal was therefore announced before the lists were formally completed.
The Senate process is running on a separate track. EH Bildu has an existing coalition arrangement with ERC, which has been reported alongside preparations for the election. The pact concerns the upper house while the party renews its Congress list, according to earlier reporting on the Senate agreement.
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 reaching 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.
Before entering Congress, Aizpurua was mayor of Usurbil from 2011 to 2015 and chaired Udalbiltza from 2012 to 2015. The two posts formed the institutional stage of her career before her move to national politics.
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 available reports do not provide a 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 framework. Matute, according to the available reports, intends to run again.
The final slates remain subject to approval by EH Bildu’s bases.
