The president of the Government of Navarra, María Chivite, has highlighted the agreement reached with the State to grant the Foral Community the competence in R&D+i, a measure that she has described as "very good news" for "the advancement of our self-government and because it is key for the competitiveness of our industry, our companies, and the economy of Navarra." She has also reiterated her commitment to "continue strengthening our self-government" through "new competences."
In her speech in the plenary session of the Parliament, in response to a question from Geroa Bai, Chivite detailed that the new competence will make possible "the organization, planning, promotion, and fostering of R&D+i, to develop, approve, execute, and monitor and control research, development, and innovation programs and projects." It will also allow "to coordinate the scientific and technological research and development activities that take place in Navarra."
The president has specified that Navarrese entities "will be able to participate, without any detriment, in the state calls," so that "we do not miss out on those aids that may come from other funds, whether European funds or national funds." She added that "the Government of Spain commits to continue enhancing the research infrastructure of Navarra."
Chivite has insisted that this transfer represents "an advance in self-government" and "one more step to continue promoting an innovative model, of talent, in which we are already leaders and in which we will continue to work to make it even more so." She recalled that her Executive "will continue along the path taken" and that, "after 20 years," Navarra has already incorporated five new competences.
In this context, she emphasized that the agreement does not represent a "full stop" but "a continuation to continue strengthening our self-government" with "new competences for Navarra." She stressed that this entire process is being carried out "with dialogue, with rigor, from institutional respect, but being very clear about the competences we want for our community and to improve the service we provide to citizens."
The head of the regional Executive has expressed her concern about the abstention of the PP and the opposing vote of Vox to the transfer agreement in the meeting of the Navarre part of the Transfer Board held this Thursday. In particular, she pointed out that "I am worried to hear from parties represented here that say that if they govern in Spain, they will reverse competencies." "They have clearly said it with the traffic competency. And UPN, meanwhile, silent, I don't know if with complicity silence or sharing," she reproached.
Chivite concluded that this situation is "another reason to continue working from conviction and from institutional firmness. Because one thing is speeches and another thing is facts. And this Government has facts, five competencies and five facts."
The spokesperson for Geroa Bai, Pablo Azcona, has expressed a favorable assessment of the agreement, which he has defined as "an advance for our self-government" and a transfer "especially important in strategic areas such as industry, our economy, and everything related to the future" of the regional Community. At the same time, he condemned the refusal of the PP and Vox to support this competency transfer and warned of the "risk we are heading towards" if both parties come to govern.
The socialist parliamentarian Ainhoa Unzu has also intervened on this issue in the plenary. Chivite reiterated that the agreement is "important" because "we continue to advance in the deployment of our self-government, strengthening our condition of regionality." She claimed that "we are the Government that has achieved the most in terms of self-government and deployment of competencies," emphasizing "the content of the transfer itself." In her opinion, "this supports us and strengthens us on the path we have already embarked on by creating the Navarre Innovation System and the commitment this Government has made in terms of innovation, becoming the community that invests the most in innovation in the entire State."
The president has warned that "there are issues that concern me, and they are the positioning of certain political formations in this Chamber, some voting against, others taking a backseat, announcing that they will challenge our competencies when they come to the Government of Spain, and UPN, in coalition with them, in silence." She has assured that "Navarre will not allow a Government in democracy to come and take away what belongs to us and to violate the Constitution and the Lorafna."
In this line, he has emphasized that "this Government is going to defend, with politics, with justice, in the street and wherever necessary, the foral Navarra, what is ours, by law, these competencies, and that they are not going to take it from us as Francoism already did," to conclude that "this Government will politically and legally defend any setback in self-government that may occur."
Ainhoa Unzu has "expressed joy" at the "firm defense of self-government" that the president is making and has criticized that "the president of the PPN has already publicly announced that he wants to reverse competencies, starting, for example, with traffic." She has asked, "Can you imagine having to fight with a central Government that wants to take away traffic from us, as, by the way, Franco already did once?" and has conveyed to UPN that "one cannot claim self-government in the morning and certainly look the other way when its partners propose to cut it just a little while later." In her opinion, "and certainly one cannot talk about defending Navarra and at the same time be facilitating agreements with those who want to limit its capacity for action."