Today, President Pedro Sánchez will break with the principle maintained by all Spanish governments to protect Social Security from nationalist demands for its fragmentation. In the meeting starting at 5:30 PM in La Moncloa, delegations led by Sánchez and the Basque Lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, will address the transfer of unemployment benefit and unemployment subsidy payments.
This executive capacity will mean that the 29,335 Basques receiving unemployment benefits, plus the 14,472 receiving unemployment subsidies and the 623 on active inclusion income, will be paid directly from funds provided by the Basque Government. The transfer of these benefit payments should also imply the incorporation of approximately 500 SEPE (Public State Employment Service) workers into the Basque Employment Service-Lanbide, which is managed by the socialist Vice-Lehendakari Mikel Torres.
The transfer of Social Security powers, chapter by chapter, stems from a commitment Sánchez made to secure the PNV’s support for his investiture in 2023. At that time, the socialist president ratified the transfer of around thirty powers before the end of 2025, among which the transfer of the Social Security’s economic regime stands out.
Five associations of senior civil servants from the General State Administration warned in November 2023 about the unconstitutionality of dismembering the Social Security model. Yesterday, they reiterated in a statement that the exclusive powers recognized by the Constitution not only grant the State “normative capacity” but also executive powers. Thus, only if SEPE retains the capacity to pay contributory benefits will “cash unity, financial solidarity, and the equality of all citizens in rights and duties before Social Security” be guaranteed.
