The parliamentarian of Sumar, Jon Hernández, has warned that, given the "distance" separating his formation from the Autonomous Executive, it will be "very difficult" for his group to reach an agreement on the budgets with the Basque Government, and for this reason he has predicted a "very limited" path to the negotiations opened this Monday with the Minister of Finance and Treasury, Noël d'Anjou.
Hernández, in statements to the media after the meeting with the head of Finance, has explained what Sumar’s priorities are when trying to reach an understanding regarding the Basque Government’s accounts for 2027.
Among those priorities, he places housing first, "as it cannot be otherwise." In this regard, he has warned that his group will not support accounts "that are not fully focused on solving the serious housing problem that we have in this country."
As he has pointed out, the budget project, as it is designed now, does not focus on resolving the housing crisis that, in his view, is affecting the territory.
Public services and change of model
Another of Sumar’s red lines is public services, where Hernández considers that some items have increased "below what the cost of living is rising."
Beyond the disagreements in the figures, Sumar defends "a change of model" in relation to the "outsourcing" of public services, and proposes recovering for direct management those services "that are essential," which are now in the hands of private companies.
He has also referred to taxation, a field in which he considers it essential to act in order to promote a greater redistribution of wealth through surcharges to the Corporate Tax, a tax in which he has denounced that "you pay a little in Euskadi." Hernández has stressed that "it is fundamental, at this moment, to use this type of measures to combat speculation."
The left-wing coalition has also conveyed to the minister the advisability of "expanding various benefits and moving toward free public transport," an objective which, as he indicated, should be promoted through tax measures.
Substantive differences with the Basque Government
Even so, Hernández sees it as “very difficult” that his group will end up sealing an agreement with the Basque Government. “We have confirmed, and so they also convey to us, that we have differences both in the numbers of the items and in the model,” he said, to emphasize that, for that reason, he finds it “complicated” to reach an understanding with the minister.
Along these lines, he has considered it “symptomatic” that the allocation of the Department of Housing “in reality is practically frozen with respect to the previous year.” As an example, he has stressed that while the Government provides 900 million euros for the so-called Financial Alliance, the Housing Social Fund only has 20 million.
Hernández has insisted that, because of this “distance” between the positions of both sides, he finds it “complicated” for Sumar to even come to formulate a closed proposal to the Ministry of Finance that would allow progress to be made in the negotiation of the accounts.
The parliamentarian also did not clarify whether Sumar will sit down again with D'Anjou within the framework of these talks. “We believe that the scope is going to be very, very limited,” he said about this process, before reiterating that in Monday’s meeting it became clear “that there are no materials to be able to make an approach.”