Saturday under high tension in the Basque Country

They promised a total paralysis of the Basque Country and began their punch actions from the start of the morning. Several activists from two associations, Bake Bidea and the Artisans de la paix, who are calling for the release of prisoners, have decided to block the main roads, while Saturday is traditionally a day of departures and arrivals for tourists in France. The activists began their mobilization at 8:30 a.m. at Biarritz airport, when six peacemakers managed to chain themselves to each other on the tarmac, preventing planes from taking off and landing. This first operation ended after the intervention of the police, with whom the tension is likely to rise throughout the day. If the police intend to lift all the roadblocks, the demonstrators have no intention of letting it go. Airport, roads, railway lines… they hope to cut off access by organized or surprise gatherings. Only firefighters and paramedics are authorized to cross the roadblocks.

The official kick-off for this day was given at 10 a.m. at several meeting points announced across the region, from Bayonne to Bidart via Biarritz. The anger is all the stronger this Saturday as the prefecture of the Pyrénées Atlantiques has banned these gatherings on Friday, planned since last June. In a press conference, the organizers said last month that they wanted to fight for Ion Parot and Jakes Esnal, former members of ETA. Both have been imprisoned in France for thirty-two years following the Zaragoza attack in 1987, which left eleven dead.

“To the judicial and political blocking of the process, we respond with a geographical blocking”

The two associations, made up of members of civil society and elected politicians, wish to attract the attention of the French State, in order to push it to act. In 2019, Emmanuel Macron expressed his wish to ease tensions, underlining the example that the Basque Country has been in the resolution of “a conflict and the exit of arms”. “The duty of the state is to support the movement. We must not make History stutter, we must accompany it”. But the words have, according to the activists, not been followed by action. Last June, the group deplored the “deafening silence of the Head of State” since this speech. “Mr. Macron, are you aware that the citizens of the Basque Country feel your lack of consideration, your immobility as a real humiliation. This humiliation could be transmitted from generation to generation, are you really ready to consciously take this risk? ”, warned the activists according to whom the total resolution of the conflict passes by the release of these prisoners. “To the judicial and political blocking of the process, we respond with a geographical blocking,” they explained.

This date of July 23 falls on the day when the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, is also in Corsica. The region also experienced major demonstrations last spring, after the murder of Yvan Colonna in prison. In March, the Basque political group EH Bai – which recently took over the family residence of Bruno Le Maire in Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle – wrote on its website: “In Corsica, as in the Basque Country, the question of prisoners .these policies must be part of an overall political resolution. (…) It is time for the French State to listen to the voices and aspirations of Corsica and the Basque Country and take the necessary constructive measures for the release of the prisoners. Prisons cannot become places of death! We want Jon Parot and Jakes Esnal to come home alive.”

The Bake Bidea association had promised in June to “proceed with prior information for the entire population in order to deter any traffic through the means of communication, thus allowing everyone to anticipate and make arrangements”. Biarritz airport, for its part, invited users this Saturday to come in advance in order to compensate for delays linked to blockages. “There will be no buses and very few taxis”, can we read. As for the SNCF, it let it be known at the end of the morning that “for the time being, the trains do not leave from Bayonne”.