On December 31, Imanol Pradales delivered his first televised New Year’s Eve message as Lehendakari after having assumed office six months ago, in June 2024. Pradales did so from the Ajuria Enea palace, wearing a tie and in front of an ikuriña and a Christmas tree. The manger was out of shot, in another room. He has admitted from the outset that he was not going to be “original” in his premiere and has also assumed that those who he wanted to be his main recipients, young people, are precisely the ones least attentive to this type of institutional interventions. He has asked them for “patience, hope and trust” and also not to allow themselves to be “deceived” by “populist messages.”
Pradales recorded his seven-minute speech in each official language in a room in the Ajuria Enea palace which, in his months in office, has held numerous meetings and appearances. From Pedro Sánchez to the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, have passed through there. In it he wanted to install the desk that belonged to Lehendakari José Antonio de Aguirre in the exile offices in Paris, recently returned to the PNV and in which there was also a very valuable watch rescued recently. He has also followed Iñigo Urkullu’s lead in calling his speech a “message from Gabon”, as did Aguirre, who was the first in office and who acceded to it in the middle of the Civil War. In that same room also hangs a Zuloaga (‘Doña Virtues in blue and yellow’) and the ikurriña with which a battalion of ‘gudaris’ entered Paris during the liberation after the Nazi occupation is kept.
The intervention, which began with a memory of Lehendakari José Antonio Ardanza, the oldest in democracy and who died in April of this year, those who have to work during the holidays and vulnerable people, has been very focused on young people. “In this first message from Gabon, I want to speak to those who probably will not be listening to this message: to the young people. These days they will surely tell you things like: ‘at your age we did this or that’. Or ‘if we were your age we wouldn’t be wasting time on issues that don’t matter’. You will be tired of hearing it. And it doesn’t surprise me. Live youth in your own way. Live each experience in your own way. “At the end of the day, that is exactly what we did at your age,” he began.
Quoting Aguirre again, he also addressed a warning to youth. “Your freedom should not be at odds with your responsibility,” he indicated. According to Pradales, the new generation has its future “at stake” due to the risks of “growing anti-Europeanism”, “demagoguery” and “extremism”. “In these times […] The waves of intransigence and authoritarianism grow, hitting the retaining walls built over decades. Freedom, democracy, the future are not assured. And, as the older people at home taught us, any alternative is worse. Much worse,” he said.
And he continued: “I know that some people have difficulties. Difficulties finding a good job or becoming independent. I know that some of you see the future with concern and pessimism. I understand it. But don’t buy manipulated stories or magical solutions. Do not let yourself be fooled by populist messages that do not tell the truth. Complex problems, which we have, cannot be solved with simple answers. Nor overnight. That is why I ask you to have patience, hope and trust in Euskadi. Also in yourselves.”
The Basque Presidency wanted to highlight as the great idea-force of the message a phrase that Pradales has been repeating for months since he took office, that “complex” problems cannot be solved with “simple” answers. It so happens that the PNV, in its political presentations facing the imminent congressional process that it will face in the first part of 2025, has proposed just the opposite to improve its penetration in society.
Pradales leads a coalition Executive between PNV and PSE-EE with an absolute majority. There has been no reference to either the partners or the opposition. In recent months it has already approved its first budgets and implemented some laws and other measures, such as the attempt to achieve a country pact to improve public health. Without specific mentions, he has promised to give “all the best” to fulfill the commitments made. He has spent more time describing a “happy Euskadi”, “where people can enjoy and smile”.
The Lehendakari has barely made any political proposals, although he has stressed the need to “advance” in self-government. Pradales has two open fronts. On the one hand, work is being done to complete the 1979 Statute. The central and Basque Governments have set 2025 as the horizon to complete the transfer process, including the economic management of Social Security and other associated policies such as the Labor Inspection or benefits. of unemployment. The aim is to manage 12,000 million pensions. It is something that has never been done with any autonomous community. Other agreements on Maritime Rescue or Meteorology are expected in the near future. As a result of previous agreements of the Urkullu Government, this same January 1, new transfers will be carried out, such as the management of Cercanías or part of the immigration reception policies.
“We believe in the past and we also believe in the future. In an equitable and balanced distribution between older and younger people. We believe in a Euskadi that works and strives every day. A Euskadi that advances in its self-government, aware that it is the key to our well-being. A self-government that provides us with greater political capabilities to make decisions in our country that directly affect us, thus improving our quality of life. A mature Euskadi that, with its successes and mistakes, takes the reins of its future. A Euskadi in a Europe that advances in a complicated international context, of uncertainty, yes, but with opportunities that we must take advantage of,” Pradales stated almost at the end of his speech, which he closed with “zorionak eta urte berri on.”
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