Urkullu denounces Bildu’s “populism” for using officials’ protests politically

2023-10-06 10:52:06

The Lehendakari has once again insisted in the Basque Parliament this morning that there are “certain political demonstrations that use the protests called by workers in the Basque public sector to their advantage.” Iñigo Urkullu has insisted that he “respects” the unions that defend the positions of officials in good faith, but he has brought criticism of ELA’s attitude to the discourse of opposition parties, such as Bildu and Podemos, which fall into a “populism” and contribute in an “interested” way to projecting an image of deterioration in public policies.

Specifically, he has accused EH Bildu of being “subscribed to populism and demagoguery, distorting reality by saying that everything is bad”, with the help of “other agents” who “stir up the mobilizations in the streets” with “false premises.” , and has warned that “this is not going to benefit citizens” because “they create false expectations” for their “political return” because “they have the elections in mind.”

The EH Bildu parliamentarian Nerea Kortajarena has stated that the management of the Basque Government “is leaking” so “there is no need for EH Bildu to paint a reality in black and white or gray”, since “this Government is enough only with its management” to do so.

In a turbulent start to autumn due to the call by all the unions for two strikes to which they call the 150,000 public sector employees, Urkullu has insisted that the Basque Government “is committed to the development of quality policies.” In a parliamentary response to Podemos deputy, Jon Hernández, the head of the Basque Government recalled that his Executive has launched several OPE processes to consolidate up to 10,700 places in the public sector.

The Lehendakari has also pointed out that, in the face of complaints from the unions that point to a loss of purchasing power in the public service of 20% in the last decade, salaries, with the exception of 2021 and 2022, have risen almost parallel to the CPI. . Furthermore, he recalled that the remuneration of public employees is much higher in Euskadi than the environment.

That is why he has asked not to fall into “populism” because it is easy “to say that salaries must be raised”, “the difficult thing is to manage and maintain the quality of public policies.”