Basque vote sees Socialists challenge Nationalists

BASQUE voters were choosing a new government yesterday in Spain’s most turbulent region, and for the first time the ruling Basque Nationalist Party is seeing a strong challenge from the socialists.

The Basque Nationalist Party, or PNV, has ruled the 75-seat parliament in this semi-autonomous northern region for most of the past 30 years, on a separatist platform.

This time, however, some analysts predict big gains for Spain’s Workers’ Socialist Party, which wants to retain strong links with central government.

The new Basque parliament will be the first to exclude the participation of radical nationalist parties supporting the armed separatist group ETA.

The Madrid-based Supreme Court in February barred candidate lists submitted by two parties — Askatasuna and Demokrazia 3 Milioi — on the grounds that they are directly linked to the banned Batasuna party.

Batasuna was outlawed in 2003 for being the political wing of ETA.

Hardline separatists have complained that the exclusion makes yesterday’s vote undemocratic. Around 1.7 million Basques are eligible to vote.

ETA has killed more than 825 people during a violent separatist campaign since the late 1960s which aimed to try to establish an independent Basque country straddling northern Spain and south-western France.

The PNV, which rejects ETA’s violence, insists Basques have the right to decide by referendum whether to remain part of Spain or break away.

The Socialist party, citing Spain’s constitution, maintains that only Spain’s central government can invoke referendums.

Regional elections were also taking place yesterday in north-western Galicia, where the Socialist Party of Galicia and the Galician Nationalist Bloc could form a ruling coalition again if together they win more seats than the conservative People’s Party.