Basque government

The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) won the most seats in the 75-seat chamber in March 1 elections, but was nonetheless defeated by three non-nationalist parties.

The Socialists, the conservative Popular Party, and the tiny UPyD party won a combined majority of 39 seats.

First pro-Spain government

The alliance marks the region's first government clearly defending its unity with Spain. The PNV had ruled the wealthy northeastern region bordering France, which has been wracked by decades of violence by the armed Basque separatist group ETA, since the Basque Country got its own regional assembly in 1980.

"What will change, aside from the policies that the government of Patxi Lopez will adopt, is the idea that power in the Basque Country is the exclusive inheritance of the PNV," expert Florencio Dominguez told AFP news service.

Socialist Lopez elected amid threats of attacks

Security was stepped up ahead of the parliamentary session in which the socialist Patxi Lopez was elected as premier, after ETA announced it would make it a "priority" to target the new government.

In his address to the chamber before the vote Lopez, 49, said the main task of his government would be the fight against ETA, which has killed 825 people in Spain in its 40-year campaign of bombings and shootings for an independent Basque homeland.

"We are closer to the end of ETA but we have not arrived at that point yet," he said, in a clear reference to a recent wave of arrests of ETA members.

The threat of violence in the region, however, remains. Graffiti threatening Lopez's Socialist Party appeared in Basque villages leading up to the elections, and the names of some of Lopez' future cabinet members were not revealed out of fear of attacks.