Basque conservatives in deal to oust nationalists

The conservative party in Spain's Basque Country said on Monday it had agreed to a deal with the Socialists that would end their nationalist rivals' 30-year grip on power in the region.

The deal will "probably" be signed on Wednesday, allowing Socialist leader Patxi Lopez to be sworn in as the new head of the regional government by late April, said the secretary general of the Popular Party, Inaki Oyarzabal.

He told reporters in the Basque city of San Sebastian that the party's leadership had reached a unanimous decision to back the Socialists, their traditional rivals at the national level.

"A new step has opened in the Basque Country," he said.

"It is a great opportunity to defend the freedom of all, to defeat ETA," he said, referring to the armed separatist group blamed for 825 deaths in its 40-year campaign for an independent Basque homeland.

The PP and the Socialists together have a slim majority of 38 seats in the 75-member regional assembly following March 1 regional elections, compared to 30 gained by the incumbent Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).

It was the first time since Spain returned to democracy in 1975 that non-nationalist parties had obtained a majority in the the wealthy region bordering France.

Lopez had said on the night of the elections that he hoped to be appointed as the new head of government with the support of the conservatives.

The Socialist Party hold power in the central government in Madrid, while the PP are the main opposition party.

PNV leader Juan Jose Ibarretxe had angered the Socialist government in Madrid by twice presenting plans for referendums on self-determination. However, the moderate nationalist PNV rejects ETA's violent separatist campaign.

Analysts had attributed the rise in support for the Basque Socialists in part on tentative peace negotiations with ETA launched by Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in 2006.

The talks collapsed when the group killed two people in a bomb attack at Madrid airport in December 2006.

Spain's Supreme Court last month banned two pro-independence parties from participating in the election due to their links to ETA and its outlawed political wing Batasuna.

Under the deal announced Monday, called "Bases for democratic change in the service of Basque society," the PP agrees to support Lopez as head of government and ensure the "stability" of the new administration while the PP would hold the post of parliament speaker.