The Basque budgets overcome the stumbling block of the amendments to the totality presented by the opposition

Euskaraz irakurri: Oposizioak aurkeztutako osoko zuzenketen koxka gainditu dute EAEko aurrekontuek

The plenary of Basque Parliament has rejected this friday the amendments to the entire to the Euskadi Budget Project for 2023 presented by EH Bildu, Elkarrekin Podemos-IU, PP+Cs and Vox, which have received the vote against the two parties that make up the Basque Government -PNV and PSE-EE-.

The budget project will thus continue its processing in the autonomous Chamber, which from now on, and as a step prior to the final vote on the accounts, will begin the phase of debate on partial amendments presented by the groups, which exceed 700.

In this sense, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Pedro Azpiazuhas announced in plenary session that the Basque Government is going to accept some amendments to all opposition groups, for an approximate value of €30 million.

The final debate and the foreseeable approval of the Basque Accounts for 2023 will take place in plenary session on December 23, thanks to the majority that the PNV and PSE have – parties that support the Basque Government – in the Basque Chamber.

The session began with the intervention of the counselor who recalled that the draft budget amounts to 14,250.7 million euroswhich represents an increase of 8.7% compared to that approved in 2022, with an increase of 1,142 million euros.

“The wickers of this budget are very solid and its solvency guarantees that the Basque Country will be able to maintain and improve the level of its public services, boost economic activity and create employment”, he assured.

Likewise, he highlighted that the draft budget allocates 76% of the total (10,254.6 million euros) to social policies, with Health and Education being the departments with the greatest budget increase.

Azpiazu has shown himself to be “disappointed” with the process of negotiating the budgets with the opposition groups, since he believes “from the beginning, no parliamentary group has had any real will to agree.”

“Insisting on taxation, anchoring in structural reforms or proposing increases with amounts close to 500 million euros, they confirm this,” he criticized.

Four amendments to the whole

In the turn of interventions of the groups that have presented amendments of totality, the parliamentarian of EH Bildu Nerea Kortajarena explained that the coalition has chosen to demand the return of the accounts because “having a margin, this government has not been up to the task, and has not wanted to take advantage of the favorable conditions that occurred this year to improve the lives of citizens and face the future with guarantees”.

The spokesperson for Elkarrekin Podemos-IU, Miren Gorrotxategi, explained that the amendment to the entirety that they have presented “is not simply an amendment to a budget”, nor “responds to the pre-election contingency” is an amendment to “a political and social model, to a country project ” that they do not share because “it does not protect and does not reinforce its public services”. He has denounced that a large part of the money collected is destined to the privatization, outsourcing and concertation of services, thereby undermining public and democratic control of them.

For his part, the president of the group PP+Cs, Carlos Iturgaiz, has criticized the “little receptivity” of the Government in the budget negotiations and has denounced its “remarkable closure to lower taxes”. In addition, he believes that these are budgets that are based on an “unrealistic” growth forecast and has defended the need to “provide stability and certainty to society” in times of crisis, “the complete opposite of what these days in Osakidetza, for example”.

the parliamentarian of Vox, Amaia Martínez, has defended her total amendment as a measure of response to “ideological” assumptions and characterized by the “obsessions” of the groups that make up the Basque Government. Likewise, she has denounced that the Basque Quota is an asymmetric tax model, which responds more to “political marketing” than to inter-territorial solidarity.

growth forecast

The Minister of Economy and Finance, Pedro Azpiazu, has also stressed that he “continues to have full confidence” in his growth forecasts by 2023, a 2.1% on GDP, since it considers that “the situation of the environment is improving slightly and the real indicators of the Basque economy show great solidity”.

However, it has warned that although it is “reasonable” to raise interest rates to adjust them to the cost of capital, “there is a serious risk to contract the lawsuit and see ourselves doomed to a severe and long recession, if they rise drastically, sustainably and in a short period of time”.