To be director of the City Hall of Donostia-San Sebastian it is necessary to meet a number of requirements, among them, the accreditation of a certain level of Euskera. But there is an exception, and so have the PSE-EE and the PNV of the City of San Sebastian. In particular, the Plenary of the City Council may, by reasoned agreement, determine the award of a post of Director to persons other than the municipal employee, thereby removing the requirements to be met by officials.

LAB clarifies that the Director of Health and Environment and the Director of People Management are the charges they will hire without demanding the Basque level. In fact, the PSE-EE Councillor for Economics, Local Employment and Ecology, Marisol Garmendia, and the People, Economic Management and Budgets Councillor, Kerman Orbegozo of the PNV, have already produced supporting reports to appoint these two directors through an exceptional procedure.

Joseba Alvarez, from the Trade Union Section of the LAB trade union of the City of Donostia, interviewed by Berria, clarified that the lack of linguistic profile can affect the linguistic habits of the departments they run. Nowadays, he says that in the Department of People Management the large majority dominates the Basque Country, so he insists that there are no problems for it to work in Euskera. On the contrary, he adds that if the director does not dominate the Basque country, the whole operation in Euskera is “hindered”.