The first regional elections have been held in Spain's Basque region since the separatist group ETA decided to lay down their weapons last year, with Basque nationalists PNV picking up the most seats with 27, with Bildu finishing second with 21 seats, a party who reportedly has links to ETA.
The likely president of the Basque region will be Basque Nationalist Party leader Inigo Urkullu, who called for calm in his victory speech and highlighted the need to restore his industrious and well-off region's economy.
The Spanish Prime Minister's People's Party managed to secure some breathing space for his austerity agenda by collecting 41 seats and retaining an absolute majority in his home region Galicia, with the Socialists trailing on 18 seats.
Elections will be held in Catalonia next month with the Catalan nationalist party, CIU, seeking to win a further 6 seats to hold a majority within the regional parliament. If they succeed, calls for independence will likely be heightened.
Spain remains in deep economic trouble, with the economy back in recession, bank bailouts requested, unemployment figures poor and an austerity agenda in full swing.
