The new Government delegate in Navarre, Alicia Echeverría, took office at an event held today in the Government Delegation and was attended by the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz. In his speech, he has pledged to work “with loyalty, with effort, dedication and humility” to continue developing the policies “of equality, social justice, modernity, sustainability, which are the flag and hallmark of this government.” Echeverría has pointed out that it will be a “demanding” legislature, but has offered “dialogue to reach agreements.”
The delegate stressed that the policies of the Government of Spain have been translated in the last five years into “visible and tangible economic and social advances for the citizenship of the Foral Community”. And he has appealed to “coexistence and respect” because, as he has pointed out, “the difference of opinions and debate are healthy in any democracy, but not everything is valid, and we cannot normalize the delegitimization of a government that has been emanated from popular sovereignty through the ballot box.”
For her part, the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has assured that the contribution of Alicia Echeverría from the Government Delegation “will be of great value so that, along with the work of the other institutions and representatives, Navarre continues to have a firm and respected voice; so that this land remains a bastion of leadership, constitutional respect, dialogue, progress and coexistence.”
Elma Saiz stressed that, with the new delegate, there are three women who have held the office to date “and this is very good news for all of us”, she said, since “an unquestionable and transversal objective of all government action is the reduction of gender gaps”.
The act of taking office was also attended by the main authorities of Navarre. Among them, its president, María Chivite; the president of Parliament, Unai Hualde; the first vice-president and Minister of Presidency and Equality of the Government of Navarre, Félix Taberna; and the current Minister of Economy and Finance and ex-delegate of the Government, José Luis Arasti.
Challenges for a legislature
The delegate of the Government has assured that “the Government of Pedro Sánchez has been good for our community and I am convinced that it will continue to be so for the next four years.” In this regard, he has listed some of his lines of work for the legislature. Among them, facilitate collaboration between the governments of Spain and Navarre to continue advancing in key infrastructures for the Foral Community such as the High Performance Train, the Navarre Canal or the N-121-A road, and to continue deploying European funds within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
Another objective is to continue deepening the self-government. To this end, he recalled the commitment made by the president to agree on the transfer of competences in the field of scholarships and R+D+i.
Alicia Echeverría also wants to strengthen the services of the General Administration of the State in Navarre and bring them closer to the Foral Community as a whole “from the conviction that we are here to make people’s lives easier, and not to build walls between citizens and public administrations.”
Another of the commitments she has made is the defense of equality and the fight against all forms of violence against women. In this regard, it has recalled the 1,638 cases that are currently active in the Comprehensive Monitoring System for Cases of Gender Violence and has opted to continue working on awareness-raising and training from the Coordination Unit against Violence against Women.
In police matters, he has highlighted the work carried out in Navarre by the State Security Forces and Corps and has advocated to address coordination between all police forces, an issue that was pending in the last legislature. “If a service can be improved, it is our duty to analyze how and in what way we can improve it,” said Echeverría.