Jon Iñarritu will not stand for EH Bildu on 29 November, and half its Congress group steps aside

A long parliamentary career ends

Jon Iñarritu, a deputy and senator for EH Bildu since 2011, announced on social media on Thursday, 15 October 2026 that he will not be on the coalition's candidate lists for the general election of 29 November. In his message he described fifteen years in the Cortes Generales as intense and thanked colleagues, representatives of other parties, journalists and institutional staff. He said his commitment to EH remains intact and asked to be forgiven for his mistakes and remembered for his successes. His exit also leaves Congress, and it opens the coalition's candidate lists to a renewal.

Now it is time to step aside and return to the grassroots membership.

Half of the Congress group will not run again

La Razón counts six EH Bildu deputies elected in 2023, and three of them have now said they will not stand again. Mertxe Aizpurua, 66, has been the group's spokesperson in Congress since she became a deputy in 2019, and she announced in early October that she would not run. She said she was retiring but was not leaving the party, and that a lot remained to be done.

I am retiring, but I am not leaving EH Bildu. A lot remains to be done.

Bel Pozueta, the deputy the coalition won in Navarre in 2023, announced on Tuesday, 13 October that she would not run. In a public letter she wrote that her health had reduced the energy her role requires, while her commitment to the party remains. Iñarritu's announcement on Thursday came after both of these.

Lists and expected replacements

The party's candidate lists are due to be published on Friday, 16 October, which will show who takes the seats. El País reports that Oskar Matute, the party's spokesperson on economic and labour issues, is expected to continue. Sources in the party also expect Gorka Elejabarrieta, currently a senator and EH Bildu's secretary for political relations, to join the Congress group. Elejabarrieta is described as a close associate of the party leader, Arnaldo Otegi.

Criticism from the abertzale left

Iñarritu's position has drawn criticism from dissident abertzale groups, including Movimiento Socialista and GKS, which have attacked him for months and accused him of Zionism. El Confidencial reports that the criticism focused on his attendance at the presentation of a book on Judaism. A publication called Diario Socialista denounced the event as one that praised Israel. El País notes that Iñarritu came from Aralar, the faction that split from Batasuna over its condemnation of ETA, and he does not belong to any of the parties in the coalition.