“They want to criminalize the movement and set a precedent with this judgment, that is very serious”
- The company Palacio de Arozteguia S.L. referred seven activists opposed to the macro-urban project Aroztegia de Lekaroz to the courts. They are asked for fines of up to EUR 56,000 and a total of 20 years in prison. A massive press conference was held on 26 November at the fronton of Lekaroz and a demonstration was announced in Pamplona on 1 February. “They say we’re a criminal group, but that’s a lie, because at one point they don’t have any evidence that we’re there,” said Garbiñe Elizegi, one of the seven culprits. Lekaroz will be the guest on 4 December in the ARGIA Egonarria programme.
"The accusation is very serious, because they want to criminalize the popular movement and set a precedent. Once terrorism was everything, now they are criminal groups,” Elizegi said. The baztandarra has explained that there has been room for manoeuvre in recent months, as it has been the company’s lawyers, the defendants and the prosecutor’s office who have been negotiating. “We are ready to accept what we did: we put ourselves in front of the machines together with more citizens. But the criminal group is a red line for us,” he explained. The defendants believe that the company intends to be designated a "criminal group" because of the two lawsuits against the governments of Navarra and Spain. “It accuses governments of not having put in sufficient means to support the company in times of camping, and for this it needs this condition of our ‘criminal group’,” he says.
"The parties in government change, but they follow the threat of jail and the imposition of projects, and they call this democracy."
The defendants have also denounced the damage being done by the Government of Navarra in considering it a Sectoral Plan for Supramunicipal Incidence (PSIS). “UPN announced in 2015 that it was going to change that path that it had used to impose many projects, but today is the day that that formula is still being used,” he said. It has also denounced that the Aroztegi project has gone one step further, as the projects have more facilities for processing when declared to be of "foreign interest", such as the quarries of Erdiz. “This formula has been copied in the community with the Tapia Law. They are different governments, parties change, but they follow the threat of jail and the imposition of projects, and they call this democracy,” he said.
Call to participate in mobilizations
The defendants expect the trial to be held at the beginning of February, the date on which they have been granted, for the time being. They have therefore announced that they will carry out various mobilisations and initiatives in the coming weeks and months, and have stressed that the support of the citizens will be necessary. “We are clear that this is not something concrete against us, it is an attack on a whole people. If so far we have made progress with the support of the citizens, we will now continue to do so jointly and collectively”, he stressed.
“Behind this is the overall strategy of putting our land in the hands of capital, and therefore it should be a national strategy to resist this.”
In fact, although this macro-project is situated in the Baztan Valley, it has underlined that it is directly related to many other environmental struggles that are taking place at the level of the Basque Country. “Behind this is the overall strategy of putting our land in the hands of capital, and therefore it should be a national strategy to resist this,” Elizegi concluded.
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Aroztegia proiektuaren kontrako protesta baketsuetan parte hartzeagatik ezarritako zigorrari aurre egiteko diru-bilketa abiaraziko dutela iragarri du herri kolektiboak.
Elkartasunez, hamarnaka herritar elkartu dira Nafarroako Auzitegiaren aitzinean, "herri baten borondatea ezin da epaitu" banderola plazaratuz.
Aroztak Herri Ekimenak jakinarazi du sei pertsona epailearen aurretik igaro beharko direla, Aroztegiako makroproiektuaren aurkako protesten harira. Ekimenak babesa helarazi die, eta mobilizazioak deituko dituela iragarri.
