- The Stop Guggenheim Urdaibai platform received the award for the best communication campaign in 2023. The award has been awarded by ARGIA for giving new impetus to a long-standing struggle and for working to put the environment and citizenship at the centre. Itsaso Zaldunbide, Eider Gotxi and Zuriñe Gandarias have received a memory from Antton Mendizabal.
ARGIA argues for the choice of the best communication campaign of the year:
"Business and tourism or needs of citizenship and nature care? This old question is stronger than ever. Private needs, paid with public money, want to sell the Basque Country to the international community. Big, how not.
The multinational franchises of a culture designed many kilometres away need incomparable frameworks. And as there is, the biosphere is reserved for them. 140,000 tourists want to go crazy during the summer.
Although these types of projects will have a clear impact on mobility, on the price of housing, on the Basque country, on historical heritage, on quality of life, on animals other than us, on the environment, on culture... residents are not behind the decisions.
But… there is always a “sheath”. And in this case, fortunately, all the “but” have been put by the citizens. Organised citizens and not everything. On the eve of the last Monday of October, Gernika managed to get 4,500 people out in the street, at the largest demonstration in the region in recent years. It's not easy."
Itsaso Zaldunbide, Eider Gotxi and Zuriñe Gandarias of the Guggenheim Stop platform have received the Argia award for the best campaign. We have been told here by Eider Gotxi after receiving the prize: "Our job is to keep the fire on this project."