The Government of Spain, in the hands of pp, wants to centralize its policies and prevent it from going beyond the competences of the autonomies. What is more, it wants to cut those competences. It will not only fight the sovereign and independence aspirations of the other nationalities, but will also try to “de-caffeine”, as far as possible, the autonomous state, imposing measures contrary to current competences. Along these lines, the initiative for the implementation of the new income tax is framed. Let us hope that the Basque Country’s Foreign Ministers will not stick to that policy and stick to the foral licence that has been used on many occasions in our history, namely: “Accept, but not comply.” The new government also wants to centralise the negotiation of collective agreements, which would seriously damage the salaries of the Basques, which would go down, and the working conditions, which would make jobs more precarious.

That is what comes to us, because they do not respect our economic and political sovereignty. That is why it is important that Basque trade unions, political parties and progressive Basque social partners should support a Basque national agreement that offers a dignified solution to the crisis. It would be good to avoid superficial starring, to banish prejudices and to address dialogue and negotiation.

We will continue to impoverish without economic and political sovereignty, to increase insecurity and to reduce national character in us. Basque Country has the right to exercise its economic and political sovereignty. To fight together in that direction from all fronts and from all the Basque and progressive options is to “make a country”, is to build a sovereign Basque Country.