The PNV puts its relationship with the Government at risk if in the coming days there is no agreement on the transfer of Social Security to Euskadi

“We continue to analyze and will make a decision based on the specific content that has been sent from La Moncloa”. This is the response provided by the Basque Government regarding the meeting that, in the next two weeks, Pedro Sánchez and Imanol Pradales should hold, as agreed within the negotiation framework to accelerate the transfer of pending powers to Euskadi. A meeting that has become decisive for the relations between the PNV and the Government in Madrid.

The central government and the Basque Executive, formed by a coalition between PNV and PSE —which is also not exempt from internal tensions—, closed an agreement at the beginning of the year for the transfer of five powers. That pact contributed to reinforcing the investiture majority after the agreement reached with ERC on regional financing.

However, half a year later, and at a particularly delicate moment for Sánchez's Executive, with the debate about a possible early election increasingly present, tensions between both governments have resurfaced.

The main reason is the blocking of still pending transfers, precisely those of greatest sensitivity to culminate the fulfillment of the Statute of Gernika, 47 years after its approval. Among them are the transfer of Social Security and the management of the ports of Bilbao and Pasaia.

That was also the commitment that Pedro Sánchez assumed in writing with the PNV three years ago: to complete all pending powers before the end of 2025. However, with the halfway point of 2026 already passed, not only have these transfers not materialized, but the political relationship between both governments is once again in question.

La Moncloa makes a move and the PNV evaluates

In recent hours, and after pressure from the PNV, La Moncloa has sent the Basque Government new proposals to unblock the transfer of pending powers. The documents arrived this Friday in Euskadi.

The regional Executive is now analyzing the content of this package of measures before “making a decision” on “whether the conditions and necessary content are met” to convene the Bilateral Commission between Sánchez and Pradales before the end of July.

From the Basque Government, they insist that, if there is “no relevant political content” that allows progress, the meeting “will not be held”. A scenario that would worsen the situation of Sánchez's Executive in Madrid, at a time of maximum parliamentary weakness and in the midst of an attempt to push through new General State Budgets.

“Some representatives of the Government are entrenched and there is no way to advance,” lamented the president of the PNV, Aitor Esteban, just a few days ago. Meanwhile, from La Moncloa, they maintain their willingness to negotiate and reiterate their “full collaboration” to reach an agreement because “the intention is to comply.”

Social Security, the most complex transfer

After agreements such as the one reached last January, which included the transfer of unemployment benefits, non-contributory benefits, the School Insurance, Maritime Rescue or the Machinery Verification Center, the negotiation now enters its most complex phase.

The transfer of Social Security presents an added difficulty due to the need to preserve the single fund, the common state fund with which the payment of pensions is financed and which allows compensating the structural deficit of the system.

The Spanish Social Security model functions as a common fund to which all workers contribute and from which all pensioners collect. Altering that balance would imply a change of enormous significance in the functioning of the system.

Euskadi, which already manages other aids and benefits, demands greater management capacity and regulatory development, while the State maintains its reservations due to the impact it could have on the balance of the system.

In this context, the general secretary of the PSE-EE and partner of the PNV in the Basque Government, Eneko Andueza, stated this Sunday in an interview granted to El Diario Vasco that “the transfer of the pension system to Euskadi would be catastrophic.” These statements threaten to open a new focus of political tension in Euskadi while Pedro Sánchez tries to preserve stability with one of his most important parliamentary partners.