Seeing the conflicting and intolerable situation of care for the elderly and human rights in most of the residences, the brutal propaganda of the three deputies and the Basque Government, and what is happening in the houses where an elderly person is cared for, the future frightens him, it scares him very much.

What if we add two or three decades to what we have today? Can we rest assured that care will be more dignified, cheaper, more personalized and closer to the place where we live, and that the people who care for us will have more time and better working conditions for the elderly?

Today, people over 65 are 20% of the population and in 20 years we will be 30%. Those over 80 are 6% and in 30 years we will be 12%. Maintaining the salaries of caregivers, ratios and the same financial support, public spending in 20 years would increase by at least 50%. If we add to this the necessary improvements, such as acceptable ratios and more normal working conditions (similar to those of Osakidetza), in addition to greater support for home care, the increase in spending would exceed 65%. The post-COVID-19 crisis and neoliberal recipes are not going to be accepted.

And what would happen if it were maintained without increasing the current public spending rate? If we take into account demographic change, the situation would be very harsh. In 20 years, aid could be halved, public office prices would rise by 50%, workers' ratios would fall by 25%.

The Irauli-Zaintza Platform has therefore launched an SOS. Public, social, academic and political debate is the way to achieve generational consensus in Basque society.

Basque associations of users and family members are denouncing many of the decisions and situations that are taking place in the residences; the movement of pensioners, increasingly attentive, requires more caring and a more hopeful future; in thousands of homes, we continue to illegally exploit immigrant caregivers; in Araba Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, although it is shameful, the pandemic of democratic care and the prices are different; the unions can demonstrate we are and will be a reference in Europe.

Our self-government has the necessary powers for monitoring, but it escapes from the open debate. The Basque Government and the three Members, outside the municipalities, took the wrong and futureless direction. They have privatized all the seats they have been able to, unscrupulously. Now, they also want to completely privatise home aid and spend a lot of money on advertising. As an example, the advertising campaign of the EtxeTIC plan of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, in which the economic ultraliberalism of the EE.UU. goes hand in hand making apology for how it responds to the care of the elderly.

We think, above all, of Irauli-Zaintza that nobody should bring money to their income account, reducing the absolutely necessary resources. This service is basic and necessary, and investments are accessible from the public sector and do not require external capital revenue. Privatization is the result of a painful way of understanding society and life. In this case, the fact that for decades benefits have been guaranteed to external corporations and investment funds is a social crime, an impoverishment of Basque society and an impoverishment of every person who lives on his or her salary or pension and needs care. Creating decent employment, making financial provision with new taxes or contributions, empowering municipalities with more competencies and financial resources to manage the care of the elderly, is a path from the closeness and intergenerational participation of the community... And a lot of other things.

No person or group in the city or people should avoid this debate if we want to ensure that the fall of our lives is safer, fairer and more interesting.

Xanti Ugarte, member of the Irauli Guard Association.