ELA calls on BAC and Navarra governments to oppose the rise in military spending imposed by Trump and NATO

To get an idea of what the increase in the military budget would entail, it should be remembered that 3.5% of GDP is similar to the budget that the governments of the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) and Navarre allocate to education, and 5% is virtually the percentage devoted to health. ELA believes that there are political, social and, above all, humane reasons for not a single euro of the Basque working class to be devoted to this genuine disregard.

In the face of the meetings held these days by NATO Member States, ELA wishes to denounce the strategy of extending the fear, paranoia and insecurity that these US-led countries are developing in order to enrich the arms industry without limit and to increase the military hegemony of the West in the face of an increasingly multipolar world.

The first objective of this strategy is to create a climate of threat and insecurity in citizens with political statements to justify the increase in military spending, which is expected to be exploited by Basque companies engaged in the growing arms sector.

The result is that wars and the scenario of insecurity are increasing. The recent US attacks on Iran without the authorization of the UN Security Council and with the complicity of the European Commission are further proof of this. ELA views the European Commission’s latest statements as a disgrace and a lack of humanity: it recognises that Israel is violating all possible human rights, but refuses to take any political or economic or trade sanctions against Israel to stop the genocide.

ELA points out that the NATO budget is already the largest military budget in the world. The main objective of the urgency to continue to increase it is to lucrate the military industry and the investment funds that support it. The relaxation of tax rules to increase this expenditure contrasts with the refusal of most of these same States to make those rules more flexible to invest in social policies.

In this sense, ELA states that the commitment of the Spanish Government to increase military spending has political consequences in Hego Euskal Herria, as it will assume that the Basque institutions must also provide more resources.

Consistent with the declaration adopted at its last congress, ELA calls for the popular democratic mandate of Hego Euskal Herria against NATO integration, and reaffirms its condemnation and mobilization against increased military spending, against imperialism, and for a culture of peace and respect for the self-determination of peoples.