The President of the Basque Government ( eu, Eusko Jaurlaritzako lehendakaria, es, presidente del Gobierno Vasco), usually known in the Basque language as the Lehendakari ( eu, lehendakari, es, lendakari), is the
head of government
The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a ...
of the
Basque Autonomous Community
The Basque Country (; eu, Euskadi ; es, País Vasco ), also called Basque Autonomous Community ( eu, Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa, links=no, EAE; es, Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco, links=no, CAPV), is an autonomous community of Spain. It ...
. The lehendakari leads the
executive branch
The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a state.
In political systems ...
of the regional government.
The current lehendakari is
Iñigo Urkullu
Íñigo Urkullu Renteria (born 18 September 1961) is a Spanish politician, and the Lehendakari (President) of the Basque Government since 2012.
As the President of the Basque Government, he headed the First, Second and Third Urkullu Governmen ...
, of the
Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque Nationalist Party (, EAJ ; es, Partido Nacionalista Vasco, PNV; french: Parti Nationaliste Basque, PNB; EAJ-PNV), officially Basque National Party in English,) was rejected by party members in November 2011. Nonetheless, the party did ...
.
The Basque noun ''lehendakari'' means "president" and can refer to the president of any country, club, association etc.
History of the term
The term ''lehendakari'' is a 20th-century coinage, from the Basque ''lehendabizi'' ("first") and the
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...
-''ari'' which indicates a profession. Before the establishment of
Standard Basque in the
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
s, it was spelled ''Euzko Jaurlaritzaren Lendakari''. Both ''lendakari'' (president) and ''jaurlaritza'' (government) are Basque
neologism
A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...
s created by members of the
Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque Nationalist Party (, EAJ ; es, Partido Nacionalista Vasco, PNV; french: Parti Nationaliste Basque, PNB; EAJ-PNV), officially Basque National Party in English,) was rejected by party members in November 2011. Nonetheless, the party did ...
.
The generic Basque words for "
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
" and "
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...
" are both ''lehendakari(a)'' and ''presidente(a)'' for the former, and ''gobernu(a)'' for the latter, being ''presidente(a)'' and ''gobernu(a)'' words loaned from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
.
Since the very moment when the noun ''lehendakari'' was coined, both ''lehendakari(a)'' and ''presidente(a)'' have been used as perfect synonyms to refer to the head of any public or private government organ. So ''lehendakari'', in Basque language, is not only the name of the president of the Basque autonomous community, but also the name officially used to refer to the head of the Chartered Community of Navarre, the head of a parliament, the head of a rugby club, the head of a hiring board, the head of a board of directors, etcetera.
On the other hand, the word ''lehendakari'' is commonly used in Spanish, both in and outside the Basque region, to refer exclusively to the Basque president, comparable to the use of
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the of ...
as the title of the
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
head of government
The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a ...
in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
.
Lehendakaris elected for the
PNV have sworn office following a ritual established by Aguirre: next to the
Guernica Tree
''Gernikako Arbola'' ("the Tree of Gernika" in Basque) is an oak tree that symbolizes traditional freedoms for the Biscayan people, and by extension for the Basque people as a whole. The Lords of Biscay (including kings of Castile and Carlis ...
, on a
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
in Basque, using a symbolic formula which reads "before God, prostrated, standing on Basque land, remembering the ancestors, under the Guernica Tree and before you, representatives of the Basque people, I swear...".
Former lehendakari
Patxi López
Francisco Javier "Patxi" López Álvarez (; born 4 October 1959) is a Spanish politician serving as Member of the Congress of Deputies and chair of the Constitutional Committee.
Previously, he has served as President of the Autonomous Communi ...
used a similar formula in the same place, but also included visible changes to it by suppressing the "before God, prostrated" part and the fact that he sworn on a
Basque Statute of Autonomy
{{Politics of Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country of 1979 ( eu, Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoko Estatutua; es, Estatuto de Autonomía del País Vasco), widely known as the Statute of Gernika ( eu, Gerni ...
rather than on a Bible.
«López promete el cargo en Gernika sin humillarse ante dios»
''Publico'', 07/05/2009.
See also
* List of Lehendakaris
*Ajuria Enea
The Palace of Ajuria Enea is a building in Vitoria-Gasteiz, northern Spain. It is the official residence of the Lehendakari (the President of the Basque Autonomous Community).
The building, chosen to be official residence on the basis of its arc ...
*Basque Government
The Basque Government ( eu, Eusko Jaurlaritza, es, Gobierno Vasco) is the governing body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain. The head of the Basque government is known as the ''Lehendakari''. The Lehendakari is appointed by the Basque P ...
*Basque Parliament
The Basque Parliament ( Basque: ''Eusko Legebiltzarra'', Spanish: ''Parlamento Vasco'') is the legislative body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain and the elected assembly to which the Basque Government is responsible.
The Parliament ...
References
{{Authority control