The Euskal Herria pensioners movement will be demonstrated on September 20 in the three Basque capitals in protest of the Basque Government’s decision to issue unfavorable criteria for taking into consideration of the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) to complement pensions to the minimum interprofessional salary (SMI).
The Basque Executive announced his unfavorable criteria on Tuesday to take into consideration of the ILP promoted by the Euskal Herria pensioners movement to create a complement to pensions until reaching 100% of the SMI, a decision that the pensioners collective already denounced in that same day ensuring feeling “doubly deceived” and warning of his intention to “respond” with mobilizations.
Thus, this Friday representatives of the platform have announced their upcoming protests in an appearance before the Basque Parliament, in which they have exhibited a banner in which 145,142 signatures could be read, in reference to the accessions they had collected to support their inciative.
Basque pensioners will demonstrate on Saturday, September 20 in Bilbao (from the Sacred Heart at 6:00 p.m.), San Sebastián (from the Boulevard at 12.00) and Vitoria (from the artium square at 12.00).
They will also express their rejection of the Basque Government’s decision in the weekly concentrations of the Mondays, which will resume next week after the summer break, and on the 25th with a new protest in Vitoria.
“It is a shame that this Basque Government sacrifices the interests of thousands of vulnerable people of this society based on the negotiations or the interests that may be discussing in other areas. We will defend our reasons and teeth with nails because this proposal is fair, it is necessary and is urgent,” said one of its spokesmen.
“Pure propaganda”
As already expressed on Tuesday, from the movement of pensioners criticize that the Basque Government has submitted, to adopt its decision, a “political report without any rigor or data, without correspondence” with the report they presented together with the ILP in September last year.
Likewise, they regret that after the “arduous and expensive” process to collect support and that in which they have managed to collect more than 145,000 signatures, it is intended to “give folder” to the initiative “to even deny even the right to be admitted to process and can be discussed in the Basque Parliament.”
Pensioners consider that the decision of the Basque Government “exposes that their speeches about the strengthening of democracy and social justice are pure propaganda.”
The pensioners platform criticizes that the Basque Government argues that “the protection of pensioners is already guaranteed by the income guarantee income since 2008, but does not say that this guarantee that for an independent perceptor was 100% of the minimum interprofessional salary was annulled in 2019 within its social expense cut policies.”
It also censures that the Executive considers that “an individual complement cannot be accepted without taking into account the income of the coexistence unit” because, denounces, “that savings policy is leading to women, which are the ones with the lowest pensions, have to depend on their spouses or de facto couples.”
In this way, it claims “the right of each pensioner person to have sufficient income regardless of their relationships of coexistence, as recognized by the European Pillar of Social Rights, article 13 of the European Social Charter or the resolution of the European Parliament of July 2022”.
Pensioners consider that “the RGI, designed and designed for people of active age in order to foster their labor inclusion, accredits their failure in relation to pensioners because the maximum of 15,000 perceptions achieved at some time represents 16% of the more than 90,000 pensioners, most women, who have no income to live dignity.”
“It is not just about avoiding the poverty and social exclusion of pensioners but also guaranteeing income of sufficiency that allow them to deal with basic expenses among which are, in addition to food, health and housing,” they insist.
On the other hand, they denounce that, when the Basque Government warns that “complementing pensions corresponds to the State, this means a flagrant abandonment of a competence that is planned in the statute of autonomy, that of creating a Basque Pension Complement System, as certified by the Legal Services and the Basque Parliament Table.”
In addition, they see “unacceptable to be said that there are no financial resources for the most precarious pensioners while they are distributed thoroughly hundred millions of euros for large companies.”
In his opinion, “it seems clear that the PNV and the PSE-EE have decided to consummate this abuse to the participation of citizens as quickly as possible.”
