The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) has won the Basque regional elections, securing 30 of the 75 available seats, but Juan José Ibarretxe, the current president of the Basque government, is not guaranteed re-election since the absolute majority in the parliament is held by the non-nationalists the first time.

The question of who will become the next lehendakari or president of the Basque government now depends on the outcome of post-electoral pacts between parties.

After the final scrutiny of votes, seats in the new Basque parliament will be allocated as follows: PNV up to 30 seats; PSE up to 24; PP down to 13; EA down to 2; EB down to 1, Aralar down to 4 and UPyD comes in with one.

The tri-partite PNV-EA-EB pact that governed during the last legislature only has 33 seats.  With the support of Aralar it would reach 37, still one short of allowing Ibarretxe to continue in office.

The socialist Patxi López could possibly by the next lehendakari with the hypothetical support of the non-nationalists, but only the coming weeks of inter-party pact-making will tell whether he can secure the 38 seats he needs.