Francisco Javier "Patxi" Lopez Alvarez, leader of the Socialist Party of the Basque Country, was sworn in May 7 as the autonomous region's first pro-Spanish president, known in Basque as the "lehendakari." Lopez is the first leader of the Basque Country vociferously to support union with Spain in the more than 30 years since the autonomous region regained the autonomy it had lost during the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco. The conservative Popular Party, normally the Socialists' greatest foe at the national level, has supported the new Socialist-led government to keep the normally dominant Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) out of power in the autonomous region of north central Spain. Lopez has promised to curtail some programs that aim to promote Basque identity, and to increase regional law enforcement's ability to battle the Basque ultranationalist militant separatist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, better known by its acronym, ETA.