The Councils are the popular assemblies of the villages of Álava of ancient roots and the smallest of the local administration. A municipality normally gathers several councils or popular assemblies, and there are currently more than 300 in Álava.

The citizens, meeting in the councils, expose, debate and channel the needs and aspirations of the people. As popular assemblies, they are the institutions closest to citizenship, that is, the precious examples of direct democracy.

The powers of the councils are lower than those of the municipalities, managing and protecting the property and rights of the locality and assuming the provision of certain public services, such as water supply.

But those assemblies have trouble surviving healthily.

One kind of hindrance is the precariousness of funding. In fact, the concessions' own incomes are limited and the money received ex officio from the Council through the FOFEL is not sufficient to meet the needs of the peoples. From there, in order to be able to meet the remaining needs, you have to go to complicated calls for grants, and you can never be sure that money is finally received. The threat of a lack of money always present and, therefore, it is impossible to plan the annual tasks properly.

The other big problem is the complexity of management and technification. In this guaranteed system that seeks certainty above all, formalities of all kinds are becoming more and more complicated, more and more technical. And the people are not well prepared for this, they do not have the appropriate technological means or salaried personnel. Most of the works of the people are done in exchange for kisses; some are carried out in auzolan by the neighbors.

There will certainly also be other obstacles, problems and deficiencies in the Councils, but the lack of secure funding and the shortage of human resources have exhausted the Álava Public Boards.

This article has been published by Arabako Aleak and we have brought it with the Creative Commons license.