Basques short of overall majority
 Turnout in the Basque Country was similar to that in the last election |
Nationalists have won the most votes regional elections in Spain's Basque Country, final results show, but fallen short of a majority in parliament.
The results mean the nationalists, who have governed the Basque Country for 29 years, could lose power in the region to a coalition of other parties.
In the north-western region of Galicia, Spain's Socialists lost power to the opposition conservative Popular Party.
The polls are the first political test for Spain since it slid into recession.
The results mean the Socialists could form a coalition with a range of parties - including the conservatives, the BBC's Steve Kingstone reports from Spain.
Never has a non-nationalist party led an elected government in the Basque Country, he adds. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) has been in power in the region for 29 years.
Much depends now on coalition talks which will take place over the coming days, our correspondent adds.
Bomb alert
In the Basque Country, the Socialists had been focusing their campaign on the economy rather than issues of national identity.
More than four million people were eligible to elect the regional parliaments in Galicia and the Basque Country.
Hours before polls opened, the Basque police arrested a suspected member of the militant group Eta, who was believed to have been planning an imminent attack.
The 24-year-old had been under surveillance.
Officers later found what has been described as "bomb-making equipment" in an apartment in the town of Hernani, our correspondent says.
Eta had called the Basque election "anti-democratic" following a decision by Spain's Supreme Court to ban two separatist parties from fielding candidates.
Job concerns
In the Basque Country, the PNV has been in power since Spain returned to democracy three decades ago.
 |  What kind of unemployment do people prefer, 8%, as we have here, or 14%, as they have in Madrid?  Miren AzkarateBasque Nationalist spokeswoman  |
The party has sought to loosen constitutional ties with the central government in Madrid and assert the rights of Basques to decide their own political future.
However, the Socialist Party of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had been seeking to score a historic victory in the region.
With the country in recession, polls suggested that Basques were more concerned about jobs than legalistic arguments about sovereignty, our correspondent says.
The Socialists portrayed the leader of the current Basque government, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, as out of touch with real issues.
The PNV rejected the claims, saying that the Basque economy was doing so much better that the rest of Spain.
Unemployment is lower in the region than the national average, and Basque incomes are among the highest in Spain, our correspondent says.
The outlawed parties, D3M and Askatasuna, were barred from fielding candidates earlier this month by Spain's supreme court, after prosecutors accused them of links to Eta militants.
Eta is blamed for more than 800 deaths in a 40-year campaign for an independent Basque homeland.
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