Bildu makes historic capture of Guipúzcoa provincial administration

Bildu made history on Thursday after taking the reins of the Basque provincial administration of Guipúzcoa when the nationalists and Socialists failed to agree on a partnership to keep the pro-independence coalition from governing.

Martín Garitano was sworn in on Thursday as the new provincial administrator during a ceremony attended by many former members of the outlawed Batasuna. It is the first time that the radical abertzale left has governed any of the three Basque provinces.

The Bildu coalition, born from a partnership of legal groups Eusko Alkartasuna (EA) and Alternatiba, takes control of a province of 700,000 inhabitants at a time when ETA has been rejected both socially and politically, and weakened by a series of arrests of its military leaders.

"Peace is closer than ever," said Garitano before he was named administrator. He avoided publicly calling on ETA to disband, as the other parties had demanded, but instead said he preferred to leave the solution "to dialogue" between the terrorist group and the Spanish government.

Garitano's election was made possible after the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and the Basque Socialists failed to reach an agreement for a partnership. The two parties both blamed each other for their deteriorating relations.