The results of Basque regional elections in Spain are bad for Spanish unity but not as bad as polls had predicted. As expected, the regional separatist parties won the elections but instead of the radical left pulling ahead of the long-ruling mainstream nationalist party, the two have tied.
This means that the Socialist Party, which came in third place, gets the chance to pick who governs the region.
As in Catalonia, the region has had a separatist movement since the end of the nineteenth century. Two parties toe a strong separatist line, the historically conservative Partido Nacionalista Vasco (PNV) and the radical left party Euskal Herria Bildu (Basque Country Unite), which is also the political arm of the now disbanded Basque terrorist group ETA.
The PNV has traditionally been the Basque Country’s main party, leading the region for most of the time since Spain’s transition to democracy in 1978. However, EH Bildu has been gaining support in recent years thanks to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez relying on them to maintain power in the national parliament, and his government’s consequent whitewashing of Basque terrorism.
The party has never officially condemned ETA as a terrorist group and many of its politicians were directly linked to the group which officially disbanded only in 2018. Again during this campaign, EH Bildu’s candidate for Basque president refused to define ETA as a terrorist organisation.
Polls had predicted that EH Bildu could surpass the PNV in parliamentary seats but in the end each won 27 seats. In third place came Sánchez’ Socialist Party with 12 seats, followed by the center-right Partido Popular with 7 seats. This makes the Socialists the kingmakers, as whichever Basque party they pact with will control the regional government.
EH Bildu celebrated its historic result—a gain of 10 seats since the last elections—with its supporters crying “Independence!”
The Socialists will now have the opportunity to show their true colours—will they continue to support the ideological inheritors of terrorists or throw their weight behind a somewhat more mainstream party?
