Lehendakari
| President of the Basque Government Eusko Jaurlaritzako lehendakaria |
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Coat of arms of Basque Country
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| 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 | Juan Carlos I 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 English as the Lehendakari (Basque: lehendakari, Spanish: lendakari or lehendakari) is the head of government of the Basque Autonomous Community. The president 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.
The term lehendakari is a 20th-century neologism. 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. 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.
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