President of the Basque Government | |
---|---|
Eusko Jaurlaritzako lehendakaria | |
Style | Excelentísimo Señor (m), Excelentísima Señora (f) Jaun Txit Agurgarria (m), Andere Txit Agurgarria (f) |
Residence | Ajuria Enea |
Seat | Lehendakaritza, Vitoria-Gasteiz |
Nominator | Basque Parliament |
Appointer | Felipe VI of Spain |
Term length | Four years |
Inaugural holder | José Antonio Aguirre |
Formation | 6 October 1936 |
Website | www.lehendakari.euskadi.net |
The President of the Basque Government (Basque : Eusko Jaurlaritzako lehendakaria, Spanish : presidente del Gobierno Vasco), usually known in the Basque language as the Lehendakari (Basque : lehendakari, Spanish : lendakari), is the head of government of the Basque Autonomous Community. The lehendakari leads the executive branch of the regional government.
The current lehendakari is Iñigo Urkullu, of the Basque Nationalist Party.
The Basque noun lehendakari means "president" and can refer to the president of any country, club, association etc. [1]
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 1970s, it was spelled Euzko Jaurlaritzaren Lendakari. Both lendakari (president) and jaurlaritza (government) are Basque neologisms created by members of the Basque Nationalist Party.
The generic Basque words for "president" and "government" 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.
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. [2] So lehendakari, in Basque language, is not only the name of the president of the Basque autonomous community, [3] but also the name officially used to refer to the head of the Chartered Community of Navarre, [4] the head of a parliament, [5] the head of a rugby club, [6] the head of a hiring board, [7] the head of a board of directors, [8] 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 as the title of the Irish head of government in English.
Lehendakaris elected for the PNV have sworn office following a ritual established by Aguirre: next to the Guernica Tree, on a Bible 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 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. [9]
Basque nationalism is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation and promotes the political unity of the Basques, today scattered between Spain and France. Since its inception in the late 19th century, Basque nationalism has included Basque independence movements.
The Basque Nationalist Party, officially Basque National Party in English, is a Basque nationalist and regionalist political party. The party is located in the centre of the political spectrum.
Euzko Gudarostea was the name of the army commanded by the Basque Government during the Spanish Civil War. It was formed by Basque nationalists, socialists, communists, anarchists and republicans under the direction of lehendakari José Antonio Aguirre and coordinating with the army of the Second Spanish Republic. It fought the troops of Francisco Franco during 1936 and 1937. It surrendered to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie at Santoña, while the rest of the Republican army kept fighting until 1939. This event is called the Santoña Agreement, Pact of Santoña, or Treason of Santoña by some Spanish leftists.
The Basque Country is the name given to the home of the Basque people. The Basque Country is located in the western Pyrenees, straddling the border between France and Spain on the coast of the Bay of Biscay. Euskal Herria is the oldest documented Basque name for the area they inhabit, dating from the 16th century.
Euskaltzaindia is the official academic language regulatory institution which watches over the Basque language. It conducts research, seeks to protect the language, and establishes standards of use. It is known in Spanish as La Real Academia de la Lengua Vasca and in French as Académie de la Langue Basque.
The Basque Country national football team represents the Basque Country in football. It selects players from the Basque Country autonomous community, Navarre and the French Basque Country and is organised by the Basque Football Federation. It is not affiliated with FIFA or UEFA and therefore only allowed to play friendly matches against FIFA or non-FIFA affiliated teams.
The Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country of 1979, widely known as the Statute of Gernika, is the legal document organizing the political system of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country' which includes the historical territories of Alava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa. It forms the region into one of the autonomous communities envisioned in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The Statute was named "Statute of Gernika" after the city of Gernika, where its final form was approved on 29 December 1978. It was ratified by referendum on 25 October 1979, despite the abstention of more than 40% of the electorate. The statute was accepted by the lower house of the Spanish Parliament on November 29 and the Spanish Senate on December 12.
The Basque Parliament is the legislative body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain and the elected assembly to which the Basque Government is responsible.
The Basque Government 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 Parliament every four years, after a regional election. Its headquarters are located in the Lakua district of Vitoria-Gasteiz in Álava.
Carlos Garaikoetxea Urriza is a former politician from the Spanish Basque Country. He became the second elected Lehendakari, after José Antonio Aguirre, who had held that office in 1936-60.
The 2009 Basque regional election was held on Sunday, 1 March 2009, to elect the 9th Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with a regional election in Galicia. It would be the first time that the elections for two of the Spanish "historical regions"—namely, those comprising Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country itself—were held simultaneously. This would evolve into an unwritten convention in subsequent years, with Basque and Galician elections being held concurrently in 2012, 2016 and 2020.
The Basque Country, also called Basque Autonomous Community, is an autonomous community in northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay, and Gipuzkoa. It also surrounds an enclave called Treviño, which belongs to the neighboring autonomous community of Castile and León.
The 2001 Basque regional election was held on Sunday, 13 May 2001, to elect the 7th Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election.
Erromintxela is the distinctive language of a group of Romani living in the Basque Country, who also go by the name Erromintxela. It is sometimes called Basque Caló or Errumantxela in English; caló vasco, romaní vasco, or errominchela in Spanish; and euskado-rromani or euskado-romani in French. Although detailed accounts of the language date to the end of the 19th century, linguistic research began only in the 1990s.
EH Bildu, short for Euskal Herria Bildu is a left-wing, Basque nationalist, pro-independence political coalition active in the Spanish autonomous communities of Basque Country, Navarre and Burgos Province.
Basque centers are associative organizations that appeared in the end of the 19th century in cities that have really an important presence of Basque emigration, with the purpose of helping each other and keeping links with Basque culture and homeland. They are also meeting points for the Basque people who live all around the world far away from their land.
Eusko Alkartasuna is a Basque nationalist and social-democratic political party operating in Spain and France. The Basque language name means Basque Solidarity and abbreviated as EA. The party describes itself as a "Basque nationalist, democratic, popular, progressive and non-denominational party". Recently, the party adopted the slogan "Euskal Sozialdemokrazia".
The Second Urkullu Government was the regional government of the Basque Country led by President (Lehendakari) Iñigo Urkullu between 2016 and 2020. It was formed in November 2016 after the regional election.