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The President of the government of the Basque Country is referred to as Lehendakari (literally, "the first one") in Basque, or Eusko Jaurlaritzako Lehendakari ("President of the Basque Government"). The Spanish title is Presidente del Gobierno Vasco. In Navarre lehendakari is only used when one is speaking in Basque because in Spanish the president of Navarre is presidente and not lehendakari.

Before the establishment of Standard Basque in the 1970s, it was spelled Euzko Jaurlaritzaren Lendakari. Incidentally, both euzko and lendakari are Basque neologisms created by members of the Basque Nationalist Party.

The generic Basque words for "president" and "government" are presidente/president and gobernu, words originally imported from Spanish. In the Basque language, they are used for other presidents, like the President of France or the president of a football team, and the neologism lehendakari is reserved for the Basque president only.

The word Lehendakari is commonly used in Spanish, comparable to the use of Taoiseach as the title of the Irish head of government in English.

So far, all three post-Franco Lehendakari have come from the Basque Nationalist Party.

• 1936-1960: 1st José Antonio Aguirre y Lecube (in exile from 1937)
• 1960-1979: 2nd Jesús María de Leizaola Sánchez (in exile)

* 1978: Juan de Ajuriaguerra Ochandiano (provisional, hours)

* 1978-1979: Ramón Rubial Cavia (a member of the Partido Socialista de Euskadi, he was actually president ( not Lehendakari ) of the Basque Council, a multipartite organ preparing the restoration of Basque autonomy.)

• 1979-1985: 3rd Carlos Garaikoetxea Urriza
• 1985-1999: 4th José Antonio Ardanza Garro
• 1999- present: 5th Juan José Ibarretxe Markuartu

Aguirre y Lecube served as first Lendakari of the Región Autónoma del País Vasco, but Franco's army suspended the autonomy of the region in 1937.