The welfare state so deeply rooted in the race of chance is not on its way to disappear, but it weakens. This serious problem must be related to the high unemployment rate, the displacement of industry and the ageing of the population. The welfare state is narrowing us all over the place. I will cite four sections of this cut, and then propose many other measures. Firstly, one of the most important pillars of this well-being is democratic and just education, which is being reduced at full speed. Secondly, we have health care, where at the moment we will have to pay a greater part of the medicines. The third pillar is public pensions, which are also in the process of declining, as there is evidence of a decline in the real income of pensioners, as the expenditure on monthly medicines will be around EUR 60 for each pensioner. Finally, it is about the right of citizens to decent housing, but the workers have it very difficult, unless they want to live their entire lives in debt.

A strong education system offers a country the best opportunities to emerge from a crisis. The test is in the Nordic countries, as well as in South Korea and other countries. On the contrary, Spain wants to give up that path, but Hego Euskal Herria can take another path: all economic and social political forces can reach a strong agreement. What for? Developing a greater education system and public investment in research and development. On this subject, the Nobel Prize Joseph Stiglitz has on several occasions referred to the Nordic model, in which research has allowed those northern states that have a fairly controlled crisis, while the Spanish State has taken the opposite path. It is clear that Hego Euskal Herria has to give up this direction and continue investing in teaching research.

Health also has to increase spending to deal with a greater number of older people every day, and it is, of course, a field of creating new jobs. In this section too, the central government will reduce public spending by more than 10 per cent. More people will enjoy this service and a smaller offer. The Basque Government and the Government of Navarre will therefore be able to maintain the level of service, which is also an additional instrument for the redistribution of income.

It is not true to underline that pensions have been maintained, as the Spanish Government acknowledges, but it is not. Pensions have been losing their real value since the adoption of the Maastricht Convention and now in this depreciation process a giant leap will be made. What does it mean to pay more of the medicines with the same number of pensions? The loss of income value, no doubt.

The Spanish Constitution recognizes the right of every Spaniard to decent housing. But how do we understand that right if in order to get housing, we need to be indebted throughout our lives? In order to enable this fundamental right, the governments and municipalities of Hego Euskal Herria should make available to cooperative housing the non-speculative land for housing construction. And once you've started living in those homes, it will be managed in a cooperative way, not individualized, if you want to close the door to speculation. In other words, this market must be controlled so that speculators do not fill their pockets too much at the expense of that fundamental right.

If we do not put a stop to this, the countries that form the periphery of the euro area will be second-rate economies. After all, if you follow the current degenerative process, we will become suppliers of cheap labour for industrial centres in the European Union: a country with poor education, poor research and a shortage of labour. All this, the role of immigrants currently coming from Africa and Latin America will be played by workers from peripheral countries: some skilled workers will find employment in eurozone companies and a large proportion of unskilled workers will get the worst jobs from countries rich in non-productive services.
We therefore have something to do.