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, ...

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 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 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 -''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 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 common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

s created by members of the Basque Nationalist Party. The generic Basque words for " President (government title), president" 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 is ...

" 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 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 the power of the ...

. 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 o ...

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 ...

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 ide ...

. 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, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

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 rather than on a Bible.«López promete el cargo en Gernika sin humillarse ante dios»
''Publico'', 07/05/2009.

References

{{Authority control

History of the term

See also

References