Vitoria, Spain - The Basque region was Tuesday set to get its first prime minister amid moves to defend unity with Spain as the regional parliament prepared to elect Patxi Lopez head of government. The 49-year-old socialist pledged to save no efforts to fight the militant separatist group ETA during an historic parliamentary session which was due to elect him in the evening.
But Lopez' term in office appeared set to become stormy, with outgoing Basque nationalist prime minister Juan Jose Ibarretxe accusing him of trying to "destroy... our national identity" and of "subordinating Basque interests to those of Spain."
The region of 2.2 million residents had been governed by Ibarretxe's Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) since it was granted a far-reaching autonomy in 1979 following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
The PNV has currents favourable to independence, and Ibarretxe tried to stage a regional referendum on self-determination. Lopez will thus be the first Basque premier clearly favouring the region's unity with Spain.
The PNV won the March 1 regional elections.
But Lopez, who heads the Basque branch of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist Party, was expected to be elected prime minister with the backing of the conservative People's Party (PP).
The Socialists and PP are at odds on the national level, but joined forces to fight separatist potential in the Basque region.
Ibarretxe condemned their alliance as a "crusade to destroy" the Basque identity.
Lopez, who gave his speech partly in the Basque language, vowed to be "on the front line in the fight against terrorism," expressing satisfaction that parties linked to ETA had been excluded by law from the 75-member regional parliament.
Violent separatism would be isolated socially and excluded from the media, while the Basque region would assume full self-government within the limits set by its current autonomy status, Lopez said.
Lopez was expected to give police more resources against ETA, to abolish subsidies to groups representing imprisoned ETA members and to ban public tributes to ETA, among other measures.
Security had been stepped up ahead of the parliamentary session for fear of attacks by ETA, which said it regards the new Basque government as a "priority target."
A car bombing said to have been planned to coincide with the parliamentary session was foiled when police captured ETA's military leader in France recently.
ETA's shrinking support has run parallel with its military decline, with Spanish and French police constantly arresting members of the group.
ETA killed four people in 2008, down from dozens killed annually in its heyday in the 1980s. The group has killed a total of more than 820 people in its campaign for a Basque state created out of northern Spain and southern France.
Lopez pledged to unite the Basques, but Ibarretxe pledged to continue trying to stage a vote on self-determination, which he sees as the best way of ending the violence of ETA.
Lopez' term in office was likely to be "short and full of difficulties," historian Antoni Segura said.
