The Bizkai Buru Batzar proposes Ibone Bengoetxea as the candidate for general deputy for 2027. Etxanobe leaves the position after the rejection of the Guggenheim in Urdaibai and the tax clash with the PSE.
The PNV has decided not to repeat with Elixabete Etxanobe as a candidate for the regional elections in May 2027 in Bizkaia. The Bizkai Buru Batzar has proposed Ibone Bengoetxea to lead the Diputación, according to bilbaohiria.com. Etxanobe, the first woman to head the regional government since July 2023, will serve only one term. The party has not explained the reasons for the replacement.
The balance of her term is marked by two decisions. The first was the abandonment of the expansion project for the Guggenheim Museum in the Biosphere Reserve of Urdaibai, with planned locations in Gernika and Murueta. On December 16, 2025, the museum's Board of Trustees, which includes the Basque Government and the Diputación, ruled out the operation. On January 13, Etxanobe explained in the General Councils that the Coastal Law, environmental regulations, and urban processing made the project unfeasible, with a regulatory framework that was "insurmountable". The 40 million euros reserved by the State for Urdaibai remain unallocated.
The second front was the tax reform. In June 2026, Etxanobe presented a package of incentives to attract talent and retain companies at an event in Madrid before business leaders. The second vice president and leader of the PSE in the Diputación, Mikel Torres, reproached her for breaking the fiscal harmonisation between Araba, Bizkaia, and Gipuzkoa and for announcing the measures without negotiating them with her government partner. The crisis was resolved in September with a common PNV-PSE fiscal framework for the three territories until 2029, which moderates some points of the Biscayan proposal.
In the general policy plenary on September 30, the PSE did not support the fiscal project that is still being processed in the General Councils. Etxanobe then demanded "loyalty to the word given" from the socialists. In that same session, the opposition questioned the management of the regional government. The spokesperson for EH Bildu, Iker Casanova, described the term as "failed", spoke of a "cycle's end" and an "exhausted model", and referred to the Guggenheim in Urdaibai as "the sunken Titanic". From Elkarrekin, Eneritz de Madariaga criticised that the new fiscal measures change the orientation of the review agreed with their group.
Etxanobe defended her policy of tax deductions for housing, which already benefits 266,369 taxpayers, and did not advance her future plans. Eight days after the plenary, her party opted for another candidate. Bengoetxea's proposal must be ratified in the internal bodies of the PNV before the regional elections in May 2027.
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