The Parliament of Cantabria has given its unanimous support this Monday to a non-binding proposal from the PRC with which it calls on the Government of Spain (PSOE-Sumar) and the Cantabrian Executive (PP) to carry out the necessary steps to reverse the closure of the Unicaja office in San Felices de Buelna —effective since May— and to defend before financial institutions the importance of maintaining face-to-face service in rural and semi-rural municipalities.
During the discussion of the initiative, the PP deputy Cándido Cobo explained that the regional government is already working to ensure the continuity of the branch and has communicated the situation to the Digital Inclusion Observatory and the Ministry of Economy, to which he has called for the existing social principles and commitments to be respected and for the permanence of these services to be guaranteed. Furthermore, he proposed that they be considered "basic" services and that they be preserved especially in the most aging rural areas.
The regionalist parliamentarian Rosa Díaz defended the proposal as a measure of "equality, territorial cohesion, and fight against depopulation" by understanding that the permanence of bank branches "means supporting local commerce, small business owners, the self-employed, and livestock and agricultural farms".
On behalf of the PSOE, Ana Belén Álvarez described the branch closure as an "unacceptable" decision because financial institutions were "bailed out with the money of all Spaniards," to whom, as she denounced, banks "turn their backs as soon as the accounts do not fit the algorithms." Therefore, she called for "firm, coordinated, and urgent" action between the Government Delegation, of her same political party, and the regional Executive.
For her part, the Vox deputy Leticia Díaz denounced the "financial exclusion" suffered by the residents, which, in her opinion, stems from the "historical institutional and business abandonment" of rural and semi-rural Cantabria and which "steals essential services one by one while continuing to be suffocated by taxes," she remarked.
Cantabria's Adhesion to Inter-Community Hunting and Fishing Licenses
At another point on the agenda, the Chamber has also unanimously approved a PNL from the PSOE that urges the regional government to complete the necessary procedures to make effective its incorporation into the agreement for the establishment of inter-regional hunting and fishing licenses in continental waters (Licicaz), an adhesion that the Executive itself announced on May 11.
With this incorporation, Cantabria will become part of the list of communities that already participate in the agreement along with Andalusia, Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Valencian Community, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid, Principality of Asturias, and Region of Murcia, which have signed the agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
The agreement allows hunters and fishermen to carry out these activities in all adhered communities with a single license, valid for one year and with a fixed cost, thus avoiding specific procedures in each territory. In addition, it includes a system of cooperation and information exchange between regions, which will share data on disqualifications derived from infractions.