I arrived in Euskal Herria two years ago. When I go where I go, despite the visit, I try to understand the material basis of the place: what are the main sectors, the unemployment rate, the CPI or the local minimum wage. He was convinced that he would reach a people of baserritars, with a powerful industrial bourgeoisie aligned with the needs of national development and with a less precarious working status than the Catalan countries that were displaced. However, the reality I have found is far from that idea: thanks to the free market, Euskal Herria is also tertiarizing and investment funds are not only becoming aware of homes.
The presence of venture capital and other funds has increased for years among the main shareholders of Basque companies. These funds take control of companies, imposing an agenda that is contradictory to the development interests of the Basque country. For example, the company Uvesco, owner of the supermarkets BM and Amara, was acquired this year by the French fund PAI Partners, also owner of Angulas Aguinaga. Euskaltel owns Cinven, KKR and Providence funds after selling to Masmovil for four xoxes. ITP, owned by Bain Capital, mostly owned by Aernnovan Towerbrook, bought by Danish investor EQT Solapark, and a long time.
What used to be produced, we now have to buy it from the outside. Therefore, we cannot decide what we produce or how we distribute it.
Company closures, partial and total relocations, redundancies… In Euskal Herria there is a clear trend towards the destruction of industrial employment and associated services. Industrial employment in Álava decreased by 4.5% between 2009 and the third quarter of 2022, in Bizkaia by 10.49%, in Gipuzkoa by 16.67% and in Navarre by 5%. However, the decrease is much more marked in the primary sector: 38.46% in Álava, 66.67% in Bizkaia, 35.29% in Gipuzkoa and 31.16 in Navarra. Conversely, in the services sector, where wages are much lower, Álava has increased 8.23%, Bizkaia 11.03%, Gipuzkoa 8.18% and Navarra 15.73%.
This change in the level of production, besides directly affecting the salaries of all the staff in the Basque Country, generates greater external dependence: what was previously produced, we now have to buy it from outside. We cannot therefore decide what we produce and how we distribute it. This model leads us to precariousness and it does so directly against Basque citizenship, because we are not so home-made, industrial or, therefore, sovereign.