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Juan José Ibarretxe Markuartu (born May 15, 1957) is a Basque politician. A leading member of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), he is the President (lehendakari) of Spain's Basque Country autonomous community since January 2, 1999.
He was born in Llodio in the province of Álava}. He holds a degree in Economics from the University of the Basque Country. In 1983 he was elected as PNV Mayor and member of the Basque Parliament for LLodio, and from 1986-1990 and 1991-1994 he was the President of their Economic and Budgetary Commission. On January 4, 1995 then Basque President José Antonio Ardanza appointed him Vice President. He was nominated PNV presidential candidate on March 28, 1998 to win the election on October 25 and became President on January 2, 1999. In October 2003 he released the controversial Plan Ibarretxe which foresees a future Basque country freely associated with Spain with its own separate legal system and European Union (EU) representation. Javier Solana, the Spanish EU foreign policy chief said in February 2005 that this plan had no place within the proposed EU constitution. He grew up only speaking Spanish but now speaks Basque. He is a cycling fan and presided over a cycling club in Llodio. He is married to Begoña Arregui, with whom he has two children.