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Lehendakari Patxi López described his government as the Basque Country''s "strongest of the last decade" and promised to strengthen "unity within Basque society" by building "a stronger Euskadi".

In his first end of year speech as Basque President, Lopez also pointed out that they were "winning the battle against terrorism" and added that his administration would "begin to build a Basque society free of ETA".

"We have advanced a lot. It is true that we cannot say exactly when (ETA) will disappear for good, but we do know that we will not ever let them decide the future of Euskadi".

Lopez paid tribute to Eduardo Puelles, Carlos Sáenz Tejada and Diego Salva, all of whom fell victim to ETA in 2009. "We won''t forget them; they are part of us and form part of our collective memory on which to build a decent country".

The lehendakari also expressed his satisfaction at have been able to create a "stable government" thanks to an "agreement of principles" with the Basque conservative party PP, and having subscribed to a "pact of institutional stability with the (Basque nationalist party) PNV".

"We have the strongest government of the last decade because we have been able to show, in only eight months, that by generating dialogue and seeking pacts with those who think differently, it is possible to govern. We are stronger if we are united," he said.

Speaking about the economic crisis, Patxi López insisted that he would put all his efforts into assuring that the Basque Country came out "stronger":"We are already starting to recover, but we still need to combine the efforts of everyone".

As such, he promised to put "all available resources" into action in order to "strengthen and increase employment, which is our chief objective". "Our aim is that no citizen be abandoned to their fate".

During his speech, the Basque President also expressed words of support for "migrant workers", victims of domestic violence and those made unemployed during 2009. "We will not desert them," he concluded.