Deprived of that choice, EA founders presumably sought another name reminiscent of both EAJ and the largest trade union of the Basque Country Eusko Langileen Alkartasuna.

At the time of foundation, "EE" was used by Euskadiko Ezkerra; this alternative form of the word was used so as not to have two parties with the same initials.

[11] In 2009, EA obtained its worst to date results in this Autonomous Community (3.68% of the total votes) and only one MP at the regional Basque parliament (down from seven MPs in the previous election).

By 1991, helped by the fact that both opposing characters Arzalluz and Garaikoetxea had gone into political retirement, time had eased the bitter split from the PNV and both parties agreed to form an electoral coalition in a number of regional and local elections as a means to maximize the nationalist votes, which eventually led them to present a joint list for the regional governments of the Basque Autonomous Community in 1998.

Still, that option was ruled out when EA decided to run again by itself in the municipal elections of May 2007, taking 7% of the vote in the Basque Autonomous Community.

[15] This decision was then confirmed when EA decided to also run by itself the 2009 regional elections in the Basque country, ten years after their first coalition with the PNV.

Eventually the election supposed a severe setback for EA, which obtained only one MP at the Basque regional parliament and its lowest support to date.

Unai Ziarreta, then leader and proponent of parting ways with the PNV resigned as a result and EA started a period marked by internal unrest[12] In the 2004 Spanish general election, the party won one seat in the congress of the Spanish parliament, from the constituency of Guipuzcoa, with some 80,000 votes.

[13] Following poor results in the latest Basque Autonomous Community elections, the party split amid bitter recriminations.