English: the dandruff of all the sticks
From linguistics or glotophobia and, of course, hatred against Basque, we have often seen our Basque become the dandruff of all sticks. Last of all, the president of Kutxabank, Anton Arriola, has been shaking our language and giving us galantas.The President of Kutxabank,
Anton Arriola, said recently in a conference organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Bilbao that our Basque education model is a “very important constraint” to attract foreign professionals, that Basque education is an obstacle to bringing foreign talent here. For people who come to us on a temporary basis, he has also called for English education to be “available.”
Mr Arriola said in more detail:
“If a Pole comes to us and he has to stay here for five years, maybe his son won’t have to learn Basque. It is important to make this compatible with our educational model in which Basque is the language of communication. It's a serious matter. Children are the most important thing. We should probably have an English education available to people who come from abroad, who come for a while. It’s a very important limitation.” The
statements of Anton Arriola have led to a chain of condemnation from the social agents of the Basque Country, but Mr. Arriola, far from backing out, has maintained his message to the workers of Kutxabank one by one, saying that the association of Basque businessmen Confebask and various economic agents of the Basque Country share the same opinion.
There have never been so many engineers per square metre in Basque history. However, companies in the Basque Country allow this talent to escape. More specifically: this talent is repelled
With enthusiasm and
knowledge we have the most dressed, prepared and Basque youth in our history. There have never been so many engineers per square metre in Basque history. However, companies in the Basque Country allow this talent to escape. More specifically: this talent is repelled.
Let’s give concrete examples to understand what is happening with our youth: let’s go to the municipality of Beasain in the Goierri region of Gipuzkoa. Here we have the Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) railway plant for the “big factories”, founded in 1917 and which we consider to be an example of the industry in the Basque Country. The Kutxabank, owned by Anton Arriola, owns 13,231% of the capital of CAF, which amounts to 155 million euros in cash (as of December 2024). The Basque Government also owns 3% (35 million euros) of the capital of the plant purchased with public funds from the Finkduz fund.
Currently, CAF has the highest monetary benefits in its history, but according to the Basque workers union ELA of CAF, there are large wage gaps between the workers who work in the companies of the Big Factory of Beasain and the CAF group. Young engineers who start working for the first time in CAF group companies are not paid the salary corresponding to the professional category of engineer, since CAF has created sub-levels to pay less to the young engineers it employs. It is estimated that young engineers with an annual salary of 20,000 euros work in the companies of the CAF group. In this way, this wage policy puts our talented young Basque people in short pasture at a time when they have to build their life project. If this suffocating income situation is combined with the problem of access to housing for today’s young people, there is no alternative but to follow the path that many young people in Goierri have taken: Find job opportunities with better salaries outside the Basque Country. They are a machine of young Basque superiors who have gone to work in Madrid and in different European countries. According to data from the Basque National Statistics Institute (EUSTAT), 45%, 14,147 people, aged 21 and 39, of those who went to service abroad in 2020 were young people. Of these, 59% went to the Spanish state, especially to Castilla-León and Madrid, and 41% went abroad, especially to Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. It is not difficult to imagine the whereabouts of these young people who go to work outside the Basque Country: in the city where they start working, they will meet their partner and this close bond between work and love will connect them to that city away from home, and often for the sake of the children who will come later, for the rest of their
lives. In this way, those young Basques who cannot build their life project in the Basque Country are lost to the Basque people.
The policy followed by plants such as CAF is clear: Ignoring the knowledge and talent of our young people that emerges from the Basque educational system, bringing talent from abroad by paying a lower salary, especially attracting professionals from countries with lower salaries than here
Our young people experience misery and calamity not only with pay but also with housing. The talented young people of Beasain, like those from other parts of the Basque Country, can not get a home to build their life project in the town, but the City Council of Beasain, in collaboration with CAF and the other four companies of Goierri, has just presented the “Talent Factory” project to give life to professional talent from abroad. The Talent Factory, in 2026, will begin the construction of 35 apartments to give this external talent a place to live in Beasain. The City Council of Beasain considers it a “strategic project” and must make the largest monetary investment in the last decade to advance this Talent Factory.
The policy followed by plants such as CAF, which have been praised as an industry model in the Basque Country, is clear: Ignoring the knowledge and talent of our young people that emerges from the Basque educational system, bringing talent from abroad by paying a lower salary, especially attracting professionals from countries with lower salaries than here.
But what is happening with our youth is not limited only to the industrial area, but also as issues in many other areas. Let’s take the example of health: It is said that there are not enough Basque doctors among our young people to meet the medical needs of Osakidetza and that the Basque Government is having dinner to bring these doctors from abroad. The beautiful Calapita has recently been created because the Supreme Court has revoked the competence to carry out the approval of foreign qualifications and the Basque Government will not be able to approve a qualification to bring foreign doctors to Osakidetza. But, on the other hand, every year, on average, about 100 doctors raised and educated in our country ask the Medical College for proof of going to work abroad. France, the United Kingdom and Ireland are the countries most selected for the job. Among the main reasons why these doctors go abroad are, in most cases, better working conditions and better wages.
According to Gorka Asko, president of the Basque Association of Family Physicians, we have never had so many family doctors in the Basque Country. In the words of Maiz, “The question is not whether there are enough doctors, but the working conditions and salaries of Osakidetza. The problem is the organization of work and not the lack of medical professionals.” If the talented young Basque people from the labour organisations of the Basque Country are driven away from the Basque Country and replaced by Basque professionals from abroad, the Basque speaking community will
bleed to death and we will inevitably regress in the normalization of the Basque language. Euskara is bothering them. That's where they've turned the dandruff of all the sticks.
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