After the beginning of the rehabilitation work of the Reception Center for International Protection in the Arana neighborhood of Vitoria-Gasteiz, we have seen the need to reposition ourselves publicly as occupied and concerned neighbors and to make the Basque Country a true host country. Once again, incendiary languages have been activated that promote obsolete clichés or stereotypes that generate fear. In fact, in March, we received two pamphlets in our mailboxes that feed racist and xenophobic hate speech.

On the one hand, the association Protección Araba/Seventh Daughter called the residents of the neighborhoods of Arantzabela, Aranbizkarra, Arana, Judimendi and Santa Lucía to the assemblies. The purpose of the assemblies was to vote on the use of the Arana building, a geriatric residence or an international reception center, both options being opposed, artificially and intentionally manipulated. Some of those attending the sessions have used xenophobic and racist messages, such as "Arana for the Arabs", which remind us of the motto "Spain for the Spaniards" used by certain reactionary political forces. And they have appeared as representatives of the unions, of all the neighborhoods of Vitoria-Gasteiz and of the Welcome Refugees, to give credibility to the sterile debate.

On the other hand, the People’s Party, after rejecting the motion presented by all political groups in the plenary session of 21 March to halt the refugee centre, put the machinery back into operation. To spread the discourse of fear, to talk about the macrocenter or the public services that are about to overflow... With a single objective: to use the issue of migration to extract electoral benefits, as the former mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz, Javier Maroto, did in 2014 with statements about the Maghreb community.

We call on political parties and representatives to refrain from muddling the debate to seek votes, and to refrain from creating alarmist speeches to instill fear in the population by using the qualifying macrocenter. They do not use the same words to refer to the 298 bed residence that the Baskonia-Alavés Group plans to open this same year.

When talking about reception models, we ask all social, trade union and political actors to be honest, knowing that the reception model in the Basque Country has centres with capacity of 80-100 places, such as Oñati (11,537 inhabitants), which has been integrated into the daily reality of the people without conflict. We will not be the defenders of the model of reception promoted by the Spanish State. Nor can we defend the non-existent "Basque reception model". But this does not prevent us from focusing on the real problem: the need to welcome many people who have to flee their homes because of wars, spoliation, climate change, etc. Since the institutions do not make proposals, we must give the best reception to these people.

We call for the preservation of the capacity of reception and coexistence shown throughout all these years by the neighborhoods of Arantzabela, Aranbizkarra, Arana, Judimendi and Santa Luzia, as the nomenclature of some streets itself shows: Calle Andalucía, Calle Extremadura, Calle Aragón... We ask them not to allow themselves to be accused of being racist or xenophobic neighborhoods.

For all these reasons, we consider it urgent to design and implement a project of community intervention and coexistence. It will take into account the needs of the residents of the host neighbourhoods and avoid clashes between residents and newcomers, and between people in need of long-term care and those in need of international protection.

We all agree that our seniors and dependents need quality public care. We will go hand in hand with those who argue that some people need our international protection and that the competent institutions must provide the material and human resources to make every life worth living.