The Basque Parliament approves the budgets of the CAV for 2023

Euskaraz irakurri: Legebiltzarrak 2023rako EAEko Aurrekontuak onartu ditu

The Basque Parliament has approved this Friday the General Budget Law of the Basque Country for the year 2023a budget that amounts to 14.250 million euros and that has gone ahead with the votes of the parties in Government, PNV and PSE-EE.

In this context, the Basque budgets for 2023 have passed their final stage and have been approved by Parliament with the support of the PNV and PSE-EE and with the rejection of the rest of the opposition groupswhich, for various reasons, consider them insufficient to meet the social needs generated by the successive crises.

This has been the second time in this legislature that the opposition en bloc requests the return of the budget project. The first time was with those of 2021, while those of 2022 went ahead with the support of the two government partners and the abstention of EH Bildu.

With the incorporation of amendments worth 38.9 million euros accepted by the opposition, the Executive will finally have 14,289.6 million euros next year, accounts that, in the words of Pedro Azpiazu, Minister of Economy and Finance“are good for all citizens”.

Upon arrival at the Chamber, Azpiazu has valued the “significant effort” that the Basque Government has made to try to seek broader support, which has not been possible, and has stressed that, despite this, it has approved the opposition’s allegations, in areas such as the transport, education and health.

This vision is not shared by the opposition groups, who saw how their respective amendments to the entirety did not prosper, after several rounds of contacts with the Government, without positive results. The main failed claim is the tax reform, which should be more redistributive for EH Bildu and Elkarrekin Podemos-IU, and downward for PP+Cs.

Rating of the matches

From the GNPAlaitz Zabala has defended some accounts that allocate three out of four euros to social policies, and has charged against the parties that have rejected them, which he has accused of making a “destructive opposition from the comfort that being in a minority in which they seek continuous confrontation, without assuming responsibilities”.

The socialist Sonia Pérez has defended budgets that give “political and economic stability to the Basque Country”, and has highlighted the incorporation of amendments from the groups to a law that “guarantees health and public education and social protection”.

the parliamentarian of EH Bildu Leire Pinedo has held the Basque Government responsible for the lack of agreement, having put, as “red lines”, the refusal to address changes in taxation and structural reforms: “They are budgets that are not very ambitious, not very innovative and conservative. They have presented us with more of the same, and they have not been able to add anyone”, he criticized.

Jon Hernandez (Elkarrekin Podemos-IU) has insisted that the tax reform is a key element for his group in a budget negotiation, and has explained that the rejection of these accounts is justified because they are designed to “maintain a subsidized private education, a public health system based on temporality, and create job insecurity.

For her part, the spokeswoman for the same coalition, Miren Gorrotxategi, has reproached the Basque Government for its “excuses” for not accepting the budget agreement offer that her group sent her, a rejection that she has attributed to the fact that the Executive and the progressive coalition defend “different” political models.

By PP+Cs, Luis Gordillo has made it clear that the “problem with these budgets” is not “money”, but taxation, and has regretted that “an important opportunity” has been lost to vary this issue, although he has insisted that his offer dialogue to undertake tax changes “does not vary”.

Lastly, Amaia Martínez (vox) has opined that the Basque Government has positioned itself “very far from the needs of society”, and has denounced that the accounts “are unreal, fictitious and designed in strictly electoral terms”.

Amendments to the entirety

The accounts have reached this final debate after a negotiation phase in which all the opposition groups, EH Bildu, Elkarrekin Podemos-IU, PP+Cs and Vox, have presented amendments to the entirety, each of them for their particular reasons. The PNV and PSE-EE rejected with their majority votes said amendments to the entire in the plenary session on December 9.

Later, on December 14, the Budget Committee approvedwith the votes of the parties in government, several partial amendments presented by the opposition, worth €40 million. The approved amendments include the extension of transport aid presented by Elkarrekin Podemos for 12 million euros, as well as amendments from the PP+Cs group and EH Bildu to reinforce the health field, worth 11.5 and 1, 5 million euros, respectively.

In total, 700 amendments have been tabled in the Committee on Budgets, for an approximate value of almost 1.5 billion euros.