Spain's rival socialists and conservatives have agreed a deal in principle to give the Basque region its first non-nationalist government, party officials said Friday.
Under the arrangement, which has yet to be finalized, a socialist would be the region's president and a member of the conservative Popular Party would become speaker of the regional parliament.
The troubled region bordering France has been run for nearly 30 years by the Basque Nationalist Party on a platform that flirts with independence.
The party won more seats than any other to the 75-member local legislature in elections on March 1, but it fell short of a majority.
Together, the Basque Socialist Party and the Popular Party have 38 seats, enough for a majority. They will not form a coalition but the conservatives are expected to lend their support to allow Basque socialist leader Patxi Lopez to be voted in as president next month.
The current nationalist president, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, tried to call a referendum last year on the region's relations with the rest of Spain _ widely criticized as a veiled step toward a breakaway _ but courts stopped him. A few years ago he tried to have the region's constitution changed to similar effect.
Rodolfo Ares, the Basque Socialist Party's number two official, said Friday his party and the Popular Party have agreed to put aside their differences in the interest of change, focusing more on fighting the separatist group ETA and economic recession than whether the Basque region should stand alone or remain part of Spain.
"We share the opinion that it is time to end an era of governments which have triggered institutional confrontation and divisions in Basque society," Ares told Cadena Ser radio.
Antonio Basagoiti, leader of the Basque branch of the Popular Party, said the priority of the new government would be to fight ETA, which has killed more than 825 people since the late 1960s.
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