Juan Jose Ibarretxe, "The message is clear"
The governing moderate Basque Nationalist Party has won the Basque regional election in Spain. However, it failed to win an overall majority. Voters delivered a resounding defeat against the political wing of the armed group, ETA. Its political allies won only seven seats in the 75-member Basque parliament - half the number they previously held.
It was record turnout, over three-quarters of the Basque population voted, the highest since Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy in the late 1970s. The moderate Basque Nationalist Party retained its 20-year hold on office, but failed to win an overall majority. It must now secure backing from other parties to create a new government.
The Basque Nationalist Party supports moves towards independence, but rules out any deal with Euskal Herritarrok, considered ETA's political wing, whose number of seats dropped by half. Juan Jose Ibarretxe, the man who will lead the regional government, said: "The message is clear: the Basque population have said 'we want peace'. The population have said we don't want deaths, insults and divisions".
Euskal Herritarrok won 14 parliamentary seats in the 1998 regional election during the euphoria of an ETA ceasefire. Analysts say that yesterday's poor result for the party showed voters punishing the movement for failing to condemn ETA after an election campaign that was overshadowed by violence. The group has been blamed for 30 deaths since its 14-month ceasefire ended in January last year.
