Sánchez loses ground with the PNV: Lakua leaves Pradales' trip to Madrid up in the air due to "lack of progress" in pending transfers

“It’s the most complicated I’ve ever seen it”. This is the phrase that summarizes the estrangement between the Basque Government and Pedro Sánchez’s Executive, which has a new meeting scheduled —as agreed within the framework of negotiations to complete pending transfers— and which the Basque Administration now leaves up in the air.

The spokesperson for the regional Executive, María Ubarretxena, explained this morning that “today we are less close to a bilateral meeting between the lehendakari and President Sánchez being held” because, after a first review of the documentation that Moncloa sent last week, they have confirmed that “positions are still very far apart.”

The situation represents a new point of tension in a relationship already marked by pending transfers. During the last government control session held on December 19, 2025, the lehendakari already warned about the transfers that were still pending and then pointed out that Sánchez was facing a “revalidation” in relation to the transfer of Social Security. Six months later, in Lakua, they confirm that the situation continues without sufficient progress.

Permanent meetings that have not borne fruit

Face-to-face meetings between Sánchez and Pradales serve to seal agreements reached in previous meetings held by negotiating teams, as well as to outline the roadmap for work over the coming months. However, right now that bilateral meeting is not guaranteed.

In fact, in recent hours Madrid hosted a new meeting attended by the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, and the spokesperson for the Basque Executive, María Ubarretxena.

The Basque counselor, who frequently travels to technical meetings, explains that on this occasion “they have seen the State moving less from its usual positions.”

The disagreement over pending transfers also comes at a particularly sensitive moment for the relationship between Sánchez’s Government and the PNV. In parallel, both parties are negotiating issues such as the housing decree or the General State Budgets. For the PNV, the different dossiers are part of the same political relationship: if the central government does not respond to pending demands, the PNV distances itself.

Lakua's position precisely reflects that discomfort. They are not happy with the response received from Moncloa and consider that the proposals submitted on the 17th are not enough, for now, to unblock the next meeting between Sánchez and Pradales.

The lehendakari already spoke of a "revalidation" six months ago. Now, with positions still "very far apart," the relationship between Madrid and Vitoria is once again pending a negotiation that affects not only transfers, but also the political balance that sustains the relationship between the central government and the PNV.