Mayor of Bilbao With a nationalist ideology, Arana belonged to the
Comunión Nacionalista Vasca in the
Basque Nationalist Party. This appointment being supported by the President of the Liberal Committee of Bilbao
Federico de Echeverría with great indignation of men like Balparda, and of the socialists and republicans. In 1917, the appointment of mayors was replaced by the election method, and this time he was elected mayor by the vote of the people. Another of the challenges that Arana had to face during his mandate was the
1917 Spanish general strike, called by the
Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) and the
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) at the state level. In Bilbao, the strike was carried out by 100,000 workers, who paralyzed the town between 13 and 19 August. The clashes with the assault guard and the derailment of a train near
La Peña left 11 dead and dozens injured. Arana's most complicated challenge, however, was when the city of Bilbao was hit by the
Influenza pandemic of 1918; during the months of September and October, more than 700 deaths were recorded in Bilbao due to the flu. During the epidemic, the mayor had a direct involvement in managing the crisis and his participation was subsequently praised by doctors and other social entities. Autonomy issues acquired great prominence during Arana's mandate, and thus, on 17 July 1917, the Bilbao City Council adhered to the manifesto approved by the Basque councils in favor of political self-government. This inspired similar initiatives in other Biscayan city councils, which were supported by the Bilbao city council in order to establish agreements in favor of the autonomy of the City Councils of Bizkaia. A mayoral decree brought together the assembly of municipalities of Biscay on 15 December 1918 to request political self-government, but various altercations took place and the civil Governor suspended Mayor M. Arana from his position on 20 December;
Gabino Orbe Usabanderas officially succeeded him as mayor on 3 July 1919.
Later career During the autonomist agitation that followed the collapse of the Empires in the
First World War, and having been designated "Favorite Son of Bilbao", Arana was elected to the
Spanish Parliament in 1919, as a
Deputy to the Cortes for Bizkaia (Guernica) in 1919, defeating the conservative Bergé, although he resigned in September 1920. During the political situation of 1920, a sector of Basque nationalism advocated for the union of the right, which implied an electoral agreement with the Monarchic League, an alliance that Arana defended. Finally, the leaders of the
Monarchist Action League, such as
Ramón Bergé, among others, preferred an electoral understanding with the socialist
Indalecio Prieto, who had been Arana's lieutenant during his first mayoral mandate, to promote the electoral defeat of Bizkaitarrismo. ==Death==