Basque elections, National Party may be ousted
Ruling moderate Basque nationalists and their allies have won today's regional elections with 100% of votes counted. The Basque Interior Ministry said that the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and its coalition partner, Eusko Alkartasuna (EA), would obtain 33 seats in the 75-seat regional parliament.
Euskal Herritarrok (EH), the political wing of the militant Basque separatist group, ETA, who have been waging a decades-long armed campaign for an independent homeland, were set to lose half their seats in the assembly. Turnout was put at a record 78%. Opinion polls taken last week showed that the PP-PSOE alliance, which has pledged to stamp out ETA violence by force, was on the brink of achieving an absolute majority in the autonomous region's 75-member parliament.
PP candidates had to be escorted to polling booths under heavy police protection today, amid showers of insults from militants of Euskal Herritarrok (EH), the political wing of armed Basque separatist group, ETA. In a show of strength, ETA killed a PP senator a week before the vote and detonated a car bomb in central Madrid a few minutes before campaigning ended on Friday, injuring 14 people. The attacks are expected to boost the Popular Party's score in the polls at the expense of EH.
