Timothy Ell-Bizigerra
From Daily Escape
| The Most Honourable Timothy Ell-Bizigerra Lehendakarika Errepublika Herrieta | |
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| File:Basque small.png 1st president of the Basque Republic | |
| Assumed office 9th July, 2007 | |
| Political party | Kartasuna |
| Preceded by | [[Juan Jos�© Ibarretxe Markuartu]] |
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| Born | 3rd February, 1983 [[Wikipedia:San Sebasti�¡n, Spain|Donostiaâ��San Sebasti�¡n]], Guipuzcoa, Comunidad Aut�³noma Vasca, Spain |
| Profession | Politician |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Languages | Basque, English, French, Spanish |
The Most Honourable Timothy Ell-Bizigerra Urrutia de San Fernando (Basque: Timotzaren Ell Bizigerra Urrutia Donifernado), born 3rd February, 1983 in [[Wikipedia:San Sebasti�¡n, Spain|Donostiaâ��San Sebasti�¡n]], Guipuzcoa province, in the former Comunidad Aut�³noma Vasca (Basque Autonomous Community) of Spain, is the first elected president (lehendakari) of the newly formed Basque Republic, as well as, through his presidential office, First Lord of the Basque Treasury, Archsurrogate of the Basque Assembly and Grand Master of the Gernika Society.
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[edit] Early life, education and early career
Ell-Bizigerra is the son of a Canadian father and a Basque mother. His parents met while his father was doing work for Royal Dutch Shell along the Cantabrian coastline in the 1970s. They married in 1979, and Timothy, their younger child, was born four years later. (Ell-Bizigerra's older sister, Maite, was born in 1980.) Ell-Bizigerra attended Donostia Boys' School until the age of 16, and moved onto the Sorbonne in Paris to study law and politics. There, he met his contemporary, Prince Charles-Xavier, who would soon become King Charles XII. Studying together, they developed a close friendship that remains despite their respective accession to positions of influence.
The ambitious young man sought accession to the Basque Autonomous Community's assembly upon returning to Donostia from his studies in Paris. He contested a byelection in the constituency of Donostiaâ��Ondarreta in May 2005 as a listed candidate for the centre-right Kartasuna, but failed to capture the candidacy and was placed on the party list instead. He still won the byelection from the party list, however, on the strength of his personability, honesty, integrity and oratory. From that point on he was mentioned as a possible presidential candidate among Kartasuna members and by observers of the Basques, and likely would have become the next Basque Autonomous Community president had it still existed. But he jumped at the opportunity to help forge the new, independent Basque Republic between 2005 and 2007, and, through his work formulating much of the structure of the new electoral system, and bringing the final round of independence talks and statute deliberations to his hometown of [[W:San Sebasti�¡n, Spain|Donostiaâ��San Sebasti�¡n]], instead can be considered one of the Founding Fathers and Mothers of the new republic.
[edit] 2007 presidential election
Following the ratification of the Donostia Statute on 14th May, 2007, which formed the Basque Republic, the rumours that Kartasuna would name Ell-Bizigerra its presidential candidate markedly intensified. Starting in the first week of June, Ell-Bizigerra enjoyed more face time in the press with his strong criticism of the way interim president and guardian of the republic [[Juan Jos�© Ibarretxe]] was handling the Andalusians' kidnapping of twelve Basque nationals on holiday in the new republic's southern neighbour. Ell-Bizigerra accused the president of badly fumbling the issue and of failing to neutralise the tension with al-Andalus.
He again made European headlines when, on 12th June, 2007, the assembly narrowly voted in favour of holding a hasty, two-week-long campaign to elect a new assembly and the republic's first president. The approved plan had assembly elections and the first round of presidential voting scheduled for the 25th, and the second round of the presidential vote held one week later on 2nd July. The victorious candidate would then be installed on the 9th. The incumbent Ibarretxe's party, Eusko Abertzale Ekintza (EAE) joined with his old party, Eusko Alderdi Jeltzalea (EAJ) and a few fringe parties to push through the early option against the wishes of Kartasuna, which had argued that the optimal solution would have been an August vote. Batasuna presidential candidate Irune Eguzki�±e slammed Ell-Bizigerra for trying to stopper the ambitions of smaller parties, which she said would have a better shot of convincing voters to cast ballots in their favour if the campaign period were shorter. Despite the steady political scuffling, the parties were pushed onto the hustings for a rapid-fire campaign that surely was going to be over before it had even started.
Kartasuna was the last party to select its candidate. While the EAE selected Ibarretxe, the EAJ picked former BAC president Carlos Garaikoetxea as its presidential nominee. Batasuna had already selected Eguzki�±e, and Aberdetasuna (the Green party) went with Iker Nova�±orga-Pa�ºz. Ell-Bizigerra announced himself a candidate for Kartasuna's nomination, following the lead of longtime presidential hopeful Ganix Andoni Arrats and Kartasuna's deputy party leader, Elixabete Amets. The two men and one woman who sought the nomination were the ones widely expected to do so, fulfilling the "Political Prophecy" segment on an ETB1 newscast two months earlier. But while Ell-Bizigerra was expected to pull off a win and become the dark horse presidential candidate, Kartasuna shocked the world by electing Arrats its candidate, at their 17th June nomination meeting, on just one ballot. The 53-year-old had long held presidential aspirations, stretching back to the late 1970s, and his victory left those hoping for real change in government and a new direction with a young but wise candidate out in the cold.
[edit] Continuing as an independent
Ell-Bizigerra and Amets soon entered concert, and Amets offered to back the 24-year-old, urging him to continue his campaign as an independent candidate. With his base still very much behind him, and the support of the deputy leader propping him up, he indeed decided to continue and announced, with one week remaining, that he would indeed seek election as an independent candidate, submitting his paperwork to the Basque Elections Commission for consideration. They listed him on the immediate Thursday, giving him only four days to campaign as an official candidate, but with a substantial segment of the population already behind him, and his having already been campaigning through the country for the previous ten days and more, he did not appear to be fazed by this second setback in his attempt at the highest office in the Basque Republic.
While Arrats' aspirations were honourable, he was simply not a likeable choice for voters because he was thought of as old-guard, tired-looking, and not up to scratch compared to the other candidates. Kartasuna's fortunes began to suffer in the pre-election polls for the assembly. That suffering was felt even moreso on the presidential poll as soon as it became clear Ell-Bizigerra would continue his campaign as an independent, thus drawing away much of the right-wing's support from Arrats. To cover its own bases and potential errors, and neutralise a potential disaster as much as they could, Kartasuna party leader Xabier Eztebe Kepa announced he was "encouraged" by Arrats as a candidate but understood that the public was "dissatisfied" with the choice the party had made for its candidate. He announced that Kartasuna would switch its nomination to Ell-Bizigerra following the second round, if he made it through. It was clear at this point that Arrats, who had between 7-9 percent support depending on the poll, and was running fifth behind Ibarretxe, Garaikoetxea, Ell-Bizigerra and Eguzki�±e, would not advance to the second round. The move was not considered that risky at this point in the campaign, because of Ell-Bizigerra's third-place position. However, the strapping young man was slowly moving up the polls, inching closer to a leapfrog of Garaikoetxea. Indeed, four days before the first round, an ETB1 / TNS-Sofres / Egunkaria poll showed Ell-Bizigerra about two percent ahead of the EAJ candidate, a position he maintained onto Election Monday.
[edit] Debate
A debate between the presidential candidates was held on 22nd June, the last Friday before the first round voting was to take place. In it, Ell-Bizigerra argued that, in the case of his election to the office of president, his first three major policy actions would be to improve the education system, to open up the Basque Republic to rapid economic growth (including investment incentives, lower commercial taxes and job creation initiatives), and to help Basques identify with their country and their culture. He also expressed a need to explore new ways of providing social services while improving on existing services, and was in agreement with all candidates that the universal health care service should continue. Ell-Bizigerra also said it was "morally imperative" that the Basque Republic continue to embrace its long-standing environmental stewardship, in order to set an example for other countries both in Europe and around the world. Ell-Bizigerra was also the most vocally in favour of moving to set up as many foreign contacts and relationships as possible to open up the Basque Republic to the world.
A post-debate poll showed no clear winner, but Ell-Bizigerra and Garaikoetxea were seen most favourably, both with 22 percent support among survey respondents.
[edit] First round voting
The first round of presidential voting was held alongside assembly voting on 25th June. Rumours that Arrats was to quit the night before the vote and throw his support behind Ell-Bizigerra went unconfirmed, and were indeed set to rest the day of the vote, when Arrats showed up to vote at his assigned polling station and get in some excruciatingly optimistic last-minute words to the press. Indeed, because polls showed a tight race, all five of the major candidates showed incredible optimism that they would be one of two candidates to advance to the second round when all was said and done.
As the final pre-election survey reflected, the incumbent interim president, Ibarretxe, reached the second round, leading with 23.9 percent support. Ell-Bizigerra earned 22.1 percent of the votes and booked his place in the runoff, and his good standing ended up helping his party in its assembly hopes, moreso than expected, as Kartasuna surged among late-afternoon voters and earned 46 of 176 seats and edged out the favourites EAJ by just one seat to capture the assembly with an impending coalition, or a minority government.
[edit] The 'town hall' discussion
Fresh off an uplifting finish in the first round, Ibarretxe and Ell-Bizigerra were left to square off in the week between the two voting days. Instead of another debate, candidates had originally agreed to a town-hall style discussion, where candidates would be asked questions by an audience made up of eligible Basque voters selected at random. Ibarretxe came off weak, unprepared and uninterested, while Ell-Bizigerra seemed to show a personal interest in every question asked and answered each query with honesty and tact. Voters indeed responded in kind, as a new poll showed Ell-Bizigerra with a 60-40 lead over his opponent, the incumbent. A second poll showed that a whopping 88 percent of respondents thought Ell-Bizigerra performed better at the town-hall discussion.
As the week wound down, EAJ candidate Garaikoetxea urged his supporters to back Ell-Bizigerra, and was followed thereafter by pledges from Aberdetasuna candidate Nova�±orga-Pa�ºz. Kartasuna had already backed Ell-Bizigerra the morning following the first round vote.
[edit] Second round voting
In the second round, Ell-Bizigerra defeated Ibarretxe by a final count of 62.6 percent to 37.4 percent. It was the largest defeat of an incumbent candidate in Basque electoral history, but did not serve as a mark against Ibarretxe's accomplishments. Indeed, voters appeared simply to want change, and a new face leading that change. In a sitdown with ETB1 following the results announcement, a jubilant Ell-Bizigerra assured Basques he would govern with "understated, but not underrated, integrity", that corruption would not be tolerated, and that he would keep the promises he made during the campaign.
[edit] Political views
Ell-Bizigerra's political views are not entirely mainstream. He is mostly fiscally conservative and socially libertarian, but he expresses visibly environmentalist, nationalist and populist views. He does favour Christian democracy as he is Roman Catholic. He opposes anarchism in any form, as well as political extremism, authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
