Last February 234,530 unemployed in Hego Euskal Herria were counted, representing 17.64% of the working population. The number of unemployed is already over 100,000, accounting for 44 per cent of the total number of unemployed. Among young people and those who have never had work, there is also a rise in the bosom; for some generations, the future is very dark and leads to poverty. Last week there were important demonstrations in Bilbao and Pamplona/Iruña in defence of employment. It was possible to see signs of many companies in difficulty, especially workers from small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition to denouncing capital and public administrations, they claimed the need for employment and called for new economic policies to defend, create and share it.

In this context, the words of the CAV’s lehendakari are surprising: in this “demonic” situation, he said that “we will live the worst year we have lived in our recent history.” It also believes it is necessary to “maintain the spirit of overcoming that we Basques have, to be able to reinvent ourselves and to put aside the fireworks that provide nothing” in order to resolve the situation. What are they and who throws these “fireworks”? Urkullu’s statements appear to be voluntary and closely resemble the “fires” he charges against his enemies. To turn the situation around, we need to address another type of economic policy – without looking at Madrid and Brussels –: promoting growth, distributing labour and radically changing the tax system. Real tax reform would bring public coffers around EUR 4.4 billion, according to the same sources. And that is possible if it benefits the citizens and not the employers, the capitalists or the bankers. At the moment, however, the socio-economic policies of Urkullu and Barcina are the same as those of the latter.