They cancelled the Basque party

The New York Times has an article by Victoria Burnett about changes in Spain:

The nationalist party that has governed the Basque region of Spain for decades and pushed for Basque independence was poised Sunday to lose its grip on power after regional parliamentary elections. With nearly all the votes counted Sunday night, the Basque Nationalist Party (the PNV) had won 30 seats in the 75-member regional Parliament, more than any other party, but not enough to form a nationalist coalition.
The Basque Socialist Party, with 24 seats, could now govern with the support of parties that also favor stronger ties with Spain’s Socialist central government. A vote to choose the new Basque leader, or lehendakari, is expected this week. Analysts said the narrow victory for the non-nationalist parties reflected fatigue with the inward-looking politics of a government consumed with winning independence for the wealthy region, which already enjoys more autonomy than any other Spanish territory.
The Basque region keeps almost all its tax revenue, makes its own laws, and has two official languages, Basque and Spanish. However, Juan José Ibarretxe, who is a leader of the region’s nationalist-led government, has been battling with the central government to hold a referendum among Basques about whether they would like to become a more autonomous state within Spain.
“The time for anger and arguments is over,” said Patxi López, leader of the Basque Socialists, after most of the votes were counted. “Basque society has shown that it wants dialogue.” The new Parliament will be the first to exclude any representative of radical nationalist parties that support ETA, the violent Basque separatist group.
Spain’s Supreme Court in February barred lists of candidates submitted by two parties, Askatasuna and Demokrazia 3 Milioi, or D3M, on the grounds that they were linked to Batasuna, the outlawed party that is viewed as ETA’s political wing. Batasuna has been banned since 2003.
There was no violence on Sunday, but analysts and peace advocates in the Basque region said a sense of fear pervaded the vote, especially in rural areas. An explosion blamed on ETA, which is considered a terrorist organization by the State Department, damaged the offices of the Socialist Party last Monday in Lazkao, a village in the nationalist heartland of Guipúzkoa. In February, the group planted a powerful car bomb outside a Madrid office building. Nobody was injured in either attack.
“ETA is the threat that hangs over all elections in the Basque Country,” said Fernando Savater, a philosopher and founder of the centrist party Union, Progress and Democracy, which won one seat. “People vote knowing that if ETA doesn’t see the result that it wants, it will intensify its campaign.” Supporters of the radical parties say their exclusion from the vote made it undemocratic.
“These elections are a farce; they exclude fifteen percent of the Basque electorate,” Karmele Viteri, 30, an English teacher, said, referring to the percentage of voters who tend to vote for radical parties.
Joseba Arregui, former culture minister and a professor of sociology at the University of the Basque Country, said the change of government would help dampen the nationalist fervor that has dominated politics. “The Basque Nationalist Party has become radicalized and has provoked tension in our society,” said Mr. Arregui. “Now Basques would wake up and understand that the autonomy of the Basque Country does not depend on the PNV,” he said, using the party’s Spanish acronym.