Imanol Pradales has designed the next Basque government practically from scratch and as a new executive. The new Lehendakari, who has just taken office in Gernika, has put on the table his first declaration of intentions for the legislature. The jeltzale has sought, above all, form a Government specialized in management, on the one hand, changing its structure and composition to divide the broader ministries and create departments dedicated exclusively to matters such as Housing with the purpose of responding to social demands with greater impetus and, on the other hand, looking for expert profiles in Health, Finance, Industry, and Science, Universities and Innovation. The structure grows for this reason, from the 11 departments of Iñigo Urkullu to the 15 of Pradales (maintaining a similar proportion among the partners, 10 for the PNV and 5 for the PSE), and with the aim of preparing for the greater burden of work that will come with the twenty powers of the Gernika Statute that remain to be transferred. There are also political profiles, but they are very focused on tricky areas that require a lot of left hand (Security, which will be managed by Bingen Zupiria), where you have to negotiate with the State (Self-government, with the former mayor of Arrasate and Gipuzkoan provincial deputy María Ubarretxena, who will also be the spokesperson), and where there must be a high level of trust (first vicelehendakaritza, with Ibone Bengoetxea).
In fact, although there had been speculation about a landing of political representatives from around her, either from the Bizkaia Provincial Council or from Ezkerraldea, this pattern can only be applied to the most trusted position in the organization chart, to her right hand, the vice president. First, a position for which he recovers Ibone Bengoetxea. The former provincial deputy for Public Administration, former president of the association of Eudel municipalities and former councilor in Bilbao in the Iñaki Azkuna era returns to the political front line after her recent stint as a director at EITB. Her vice president will be in charge of the department of Culture and Language Policy, from her experience as president of the Teatro Arriaga and Bilbao Musika. Personally, it may represent a kind of public vindication of his figure, after it was interpreted in terms of grievance from some sectors that he did not take Azkuna’s baton in the mayor’s office, or that the reasons for his move to EITB were not clear. .
In images: Pradales assumes his position as Lehendakari under the Gernika Tree
Two advisors of Urkullu
The other vice president will be occupied by the socialist Michael Torres, as was already announced on Friday. As suggested by her resume and her work experience before becoming mayor of Portugalete, she will lead the areas of Labor and Employment, like her predecessor Idoia Mendia, but adding Economy. Pradales confirms a Government with 15 ministries (10 from the PNV and 5 from the PSE), with two independent (Begoña Pedrosa, in Education; and Juan Ignacio Pérez Iglesias, in Universities, Science and Innovation), with 7 women and 8 men, and where two of Iñigo Urkullu’s advisors repeat.
The big surprise is Bingen Zupiria, Urkullu’s spokesperson, whom many pools considered retired and who is now moving to the Security Ministry. Zupiria is a philologist and is linked to the world of Basque and the media, but his conciliatory profile and the way in which he has managed the spokesperson’s office without starting fires have made him the ideal person for Pradales when it comes to managing Security, where the situation with the Ertzaintza unions is going through a moment of turbulence and great confrontation. It also remains Nerea Melgosawhich will continue to lead social policies in a department with a new name and some different powers (it loses Justice and the management of prisons, an area that the former socialist counselor recovers María Jesús San José, now with the competence transferred; It also loses the management of the memory policies that San José will assume, but Juventud gains, which leaves Lehendakaritza). Equality will once again be placed in the structure of the Lehendakari’s cabinet. His department will be called the Department of Welfare, Youth and Demographic Challenge.
In the case of Osakidetza, a priority counseling for the new lehendakari due to the level of social demand that weighs on her and due to the wounds that she believes the pandemic has left on her waiting lists, Pradales has opted for a professional. Specifically, he has appointed Alberto Martínez, head of the anesthetist service at the Cruces hospital, Graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of the Basque Country and responsible for the Anesthesiology, Resuscitation and Pain Therapy service from 2002 to the present. In some areas they refer to him as a professional with certain authority within the medical community. He will be in charge of the portfolio that Gotzone Sagardui has managed to date with the mission of giving it new impetus, reconnecting with the dissatisfied and opening a process of dialogue with professionals, in addition to a great agreement that involves other agents and political parties.
The ‘Pradales imprint’
In this structure, according to the sources consulted by this newspaper, there are at least three decisions that qualify as the Pradales imprint, very personal and strategic decisions of the lehendakari. For example, the decision to place an expert in financial products at the head of the Treasury and Finance department. Is Noël d’Anjou Olaizola (Irun, 1975), who has worked in Kutxabank and in the Crédit Agricole Indosuez group. To date, this was a department focused on resource management and Budget writing. But Pradales now wants to do “financial policy”, that is, mobilizing new economic instruments to invest in the industry, such as the Basque sovereign fund which will be nourished with additional contributions of public money to Finkatuz, with a reform of the EPSV so that they allocate a part of that savings to this project, or in collaboration with large family assets from the business world. I needed an expert to create those assets and maximize them. For this reason, the department now bears the surname “Finance” and not only bears the letterhead of the Treasury. In this portfolio, the replacement was announced, to the extent that Pedro Azpiazu had announced his retirement.
The election at the head of Industry, Energy Transition and Sustainability also fits within that personal imprint. He has chosen Mikel Jauregi (Zarautz, 1974), who will have to return from London, where he is currently working with Centrica Plc on projects electricity generation, hydrogen and optimization of renewables. He comes from British Petroleum, where he worked in the gas and renewables division. It is a profile similar to that of Josu Jon Imaz. Pradales has opted for this expert and also to create its own ministry for industry and the Energy Transition, leaving his own area to the ministry of the rural world. The third decision that bears his stamp is to create a department to Science, Universities and Innovation, and place in front the former rector of the UPV/EHU and director of the Chair of Scientific Culture, Juan Ignacio Pérez Iglesias.
The nod to the countryside
The PNV admitted after this electoral cycle that the tractor units They have taken their toll at the polls and that part of the rural electorate, which traditionally voted for the Jeltzales, has stayed at home. In this context, Pradales has launched a specific nod to the countryside. Amaia Barredo will manage an exclusive department for this challenge, that of Food, Rural Development and Fisheries, a task that he will carry out with the knowledge acquired in his degree in Food Technology at the Basque Faculty of Pharmacy. She is a regional deputy for the area in Araba and was already vice-counsellor of sustainability with Arantxa Tapia.
Another deputy minister, this time of Education during this last stage of Jokin Bildarratz, will take the reins of the ministry in that matter. She is Begoña Pedrosa, former dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Sciences of Mondragon and doctor in Applied Linguistics from the UPV with an outstanding cum laude. She knows first-hand the kitchen of the Education Law and the objectives of the educational pact.
The presence of the PSE
The socialists will manage five ministries, with the same areas as until now (splitting Housing and Sustainable Mobility into two different departments), and recovering Justice with the same counselor who already took the reins when the responsibility for prisons had not been transferred. María Jesús San José. On paper, it is a politically complex council due to the sensitivities that the granting of permits to prisoners among ETA victims can hurt, although these criticisms come from very specific groups, the Government has made an educational effort, and the media projection and social that this challenge has is becoming less and less.
Javier Hurtado continues to lead Tourism, Commerce and Consumption; Susana García Chueca enters the Government to manage Sustainable Mobility; and Housing now has its own department, with the former delegate of the Spanish Government, Denis Itxaso, in front. Itxaso was a natural replacement for Iñaki Arriola, who is retiring, and in recent months he had participated in several events and rallies focused on housing, as if this replacement was being prepared for a portfolio that the PSE never hid that it wanted to keep. The state Housing Law has confronted PNV and PSE because the jeltzales defended the appeal to the Constitutional Court for invasion of jurisdiction, and Itxaso accused the PNV of immobility when it came to guaranteeing the right, and now they have the challenge of managing that coexistence based to the measures of the program, a common ground.
Among the directors there are five with a doctorate, 5 are from Bizkaia, 6 from Gipuzkoa and 4 from Araba.