The policy of the Basque Government to criminalise the poor has become news again in November. Lanbide has created an anonymous whistleblower for honest citizens to denounce “any suspicion of irregular actions” from potentially fraudulent citizens receiving Income Guarantee Income. Good time to make a little genealogy of this criminalization.
Lanbide started managing the IGR in 2012. The socialist Patxi López was lehendakari since 2009, thanks to the support of pp and the illegalization of the Abertzale left, and the Minister of Employment and Social Affairs, Gemma Zabaleta, was on the left. Zabaleta made an uncomplicated speech from the beginning, linking the right to benefit with the active attitude of seeking and training jobs and establishing new obligations, among other things. More directly or indirectly, he implied that some preferred to live with 612 euros as advisors, rather than pay a salary. While the counselor publicly ventilated them, Lanbide made private leaks to the Correo group.
Since 2012 'El Correo' and 'El Diario Vasco' brought its main headlines the fraud of the RGI
The Correo and the Diario Vasco led once the fraud of the RGI to its main headlines. If you read the full article inside, perhaps the reader understands that fraud really was an undue payment for Lanbide’s slowness and lack of resources, which was returned by those who received it when the administration so required. I was one of those thousands of scammers at that time: since I asked for the suspension of the IGR for starting to work on wages, it took at least six months; Lanbide informed me at that time that I had to pay back the thousands of euros I had received at that time and so I did. But how many of you will read a long article in the newspaper, if the headline on the front page has made it clear?
By chance or causality, at that time the head of communication for Lanbide was David González. Since 1997, a journalist from El Correo, he left his job to work in Lanbide from March 2011 until López’s legislature ended in December 2012.
The collaboration between the Basque Government, Zabaleta and El Correo was fruitful: According to a report by the Basque Government, fraud in the IGR was below 0.8% in 2012, while 64% of the population considered it to be "very widespread". The 2012 IGR budget amounted to EUR 365 million, applying a rate of 0.8%, subtracting EUR 2.92 million from public money. The investigation carried out by three Professors of Economy of the UPV/EHU at the request of the Basque Parliament showed in the same year a tax fraud of at least EUR 3.7 billion, 1.267 times higher than that of the GDR. Data on each type of fraud are similar year by year.
In 2024, we have more racist and anti-impoverished politicians, media and citizens than in 2012, but more tolerant than we will have in 2025.
The fraudulent strategy is still in place and healthy: “Lanbide detected twice last year’s fraud in 2023...”, El Correo said on July 3 of this year... although most cases were administrative errors.” After leaving Lanbide, David González returned to El Correo “specialized in judicial and police affairs”, as read in the middle. From Vitoria-Gasteiz, the criminalisation of the impoverished and migrants is encouraged by continuous news related to crime and security, provided that it involves purely police leaks.
The fraudulent strategy is still in place and healthy: In 2024, we have more racist and anti-impoverished politicians, media and citizens than in 2012, but more tolerant than we will have in 2025.