The organizers have called today's demonstration "a turning point." In Garoña there have long been no cries of nuclear weapons, neither the TAV, nor the Fracking, nor the Windmill, nor the high-voltage lines… In Álava the history of the struggle in defense of the earth is long: Free Mountains of Álava and live Aiaraldea mountains, Aramaixo Bizirik, TAV no Lautada and Valleys Alaveses. The size of the attacks on the ground.

In fact, private interests, through the Basque Government and the Provincial Council of Álava, have taken advantage of the neglect suffered for decades by many Alavese counties and the consequent depopulation to establish the position of many macro-projects in this territory, in the hope of finding a small resistance in the small towns of Álava. No, please.

Today there has also been a great demonstration in Vitoria-Gasteiz. UAGA, Bionekazaritza, So not in La Puebla de Arganzón, Gasteiz and Valles Alaveses, SOS Margarita, Gorbeialdea Babes, ATACA (Asociación Treviño y Álava por el campo), movement for sustainable food, Dikerik ez and Hala Kuartez. Peasants, baserritarras and people from peoples who have mobilized in all the Alavese counties in recent decades have once again been found on the streets, sometimes losing against the great economic interests, but gaining in others.

In the final act, Idoia Zabaleta and Unai López de Armentia have stressed that the list of macro-projects they intend to impose in Álava in recent years is as tense as it is terrible. The last is the 30 photovoltaic projects submitted by the international company Solaria, whose total area affected would be about 4,200 hectares, that is, adding the industrial sites and the airport of the whole of Vitoria-Gasteiz. New projects such as the ten hectare tomato greenhouse in Tuesta or the Zaia River dam project have also been mentioned. Over 50,000 allegations were made against these projects.

At the demonstration they denounced that “these macro-projects, in addition to the unstoppable destruction of biodiversity, are accelerating the disappearance of agricultural land, forest land and grassland”. Thus, a commitment was made to live in the Alavese rural environment, harming people and communities and “forcing them to leave their homes, towns and lands”.

These projects “sell them to us as they need, without transparency, without information and without respect to the people affected”, explained, and called for everyone to be paralyzed to “curb the predation of the territory of these large companies”. They have asked the administrations to “act with planning and spatial planning so that future generations will not see our territory full of solar panels, wind mills and concrete”. The Basque Government and the Provincial Council of Álava have denounced that speculation is taking place with the territory and not with the defence of the land. Finally, they have asked that “all the information be made known to the different social actors”.

That is not the case.

The calls have stressed that they are not against renewable energies. On the contrary, they propose “using renewable energies for self-consumption” and not “manufacturing them here in a macro model to sell them in Europe”. In fact, the idea is to transfer the production of Alavese photovoltaic plants to the facilities of Repsol in Zierbena (Bizkaia), through high-voltage cables of 100 kilometres in length.

They have reminded the institutions and political decision-makers that “the citizenship that defends territory, peoples and the rural environment is the majority” and that they will continue “with joy and determination” fighting “because we know that our future and that of future generations is at stake”.

Prosecutions and Mordaza Law

At the end of the act, it has been reported that five members of the Defender Álava movement are charged with an alleged offence against the authority. Another of his colleagues has been charged with applying the Moorish Law to him, and he will be tried next Tuesday, 29, at the Court of First Instance.