EH Bildu brought together thousands of people this afternoon for a new edition of the sovereignty demonstration, which this year had the motto “Nazioa Gara” (We are one nation). The general coordinator of the coalition Abertzale demanded to “take a leap onto the national field” and “to make a way in the new status” of Euskal Herria.
The march, led by the Political Bureau of EH Bildu, took place entirely on Autonomía Street, a short route of approximately 700 meters between the squares of La Casilla and Zabalburu. The demonstrators, who carried many ikurriñas and flags of Navarre without the crown, walked the route in silence, interrupted only by sporadic cries of “independence”.
At the end of the march, Otegi gave a speech in Basque and Spanish in which he asked to “take a step at the national level and open the way to a new status for the country.” “This path begins because everyone recognizes that Euskal Herria is a nation and must be respected, and from there trace a path,” he said.
The Abertzale leader asked his base to “fight every day” with “small gestures” against neoliberalism and to contribute to making a country because “we cannot liberate a country or build an alternative society if we is not capable of imposing the country every day.” “and from the collective to the individual.”
Otegi also highlighted the “many progress” made by EH Bildu in recent years. Among them, stand out the legal changes which mean that sentences served in France are attributed to ETA prisoners or the agreements aimed at modifying the Gag law.
He placed particular emphasis on those obtained in Navarre, such as the motion of censure agreed with the PSN to oust the right-wing UPN from the town hall of Pamplona and reinvest Joseba Asiron (EH Bildu) as mayor, or more recently, the signed with the socialists and Geroa Bai for re-signify the war memorial in the Navarrese capitalthe second largest Franco monument in Spain, to make it a place of memory which will bear the name of Maravillas Lamberto, the 14-year-old Navarre girl raped and murdered in 1936 with her father, a UGT activist, by Falangists and civil guards.
“Those who wanted the monument that glorified the fascists will now have to see the eyes of Maravillas Lamberto, which are those of Euskal Herria, anti-fascist, nationalist and socialist. It’s poetic justice,” he stressed.
Otegi closed his speech by inviting participants to sing and dance “Sarri Sarri”, Kortatu’s song about the escape from Martutene prison of ETA prisoner and writer Joseba Sarrionandia, a subject that confronted Fermín Muguruza this week with the Basque government for having recently sung it in this same prison of San Sebastián, which the Minister of Justice, María Jesús San José, considered offensive towards the victims of ETA.
Other left-wing sovereignist groups also participated in the EH Bildu demonstration, represented by the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira; the head of international relations of the BNG, Rubén Cela; Susana Moreno, Berta Ramis and Carles Soler, members of the CUP; and those of Compromis Verónica Ruiz, Carla Nebot and Vincent Marza; and Lluis Apesteguia for Mes Per Mallorca.
