When you're occupying eight days. What are you in?

We met in Barda the Lur group of the ELB and Lurzaindia, we were about 25. We have spent eight days, it is important that we have spent a week in this way and have met. We have a very positive assessment. On the one hand, people have walked, not the crowd, but ter-ter-ter people have always come. On the other hand, we have also tried to carry out work on the electorate, to get support and we have also had a good answer there. For example, within 36 hours, half of the mayors of Ipar Euskal Herria have supported our action. We are also pleased about this, and I think that pressure is being exerted on the seller and the buyer somewhere.

Can you remind us of your demands?

One is to save twelve hectares for agriculture and leave the buyer the house and three hectares. We want SAFER to buy these 12 hectares at the price of cultivation. And the other claim is that we look at the Single Community in Iparralde, we want work to be done on the management of farmland. In that sense, nothing is done, and we were starting to get bored. Jean-René Etxegarai [President of the Commonwealth] and Isabelle Pargade [elected to be responsible for agriculture in the Commonwealth] have come to give us their vision and support. This work on the grounds starts in the drummer. So we have one of the two demands. On the future it is important, all the structures that deal with the land will be collected – Lurzaindia, EPFL, Chamber of Agriculture, agricultural unions,.......... It's optimistic, but we've told you that we don't want much mass and then nothing; things are going too fast, agriculture loses a lot of land. The lands are there, but they become a resting place without realizing it. That is what we have to look at and we have warned the electorate that they have to set limits. We have also dealt with the request to raise our proposals to the French Parliament to improve SAFER’s ability to buy preferential land. The power of SAFER weakens, saves less and less land, and this is not good either, as the presence of SAFER itself is important.

On the specific case of Arbona, Etxegarai has proposed that you work on mediation.

He has proposed to contact the buyer and the seller, telling us that he would try to get our cry. We have given him permission to do this work. We leave you, however, a little bit of relief, so that you do it in your own way, and when something goes on, we ask you to get it there. We must be aware, however, that we are observers and that we cannot be too vigilant: we must not let the dose rot, if something is not achieved we will have to find other ways.

They have decided to continue the occupation.

We have decided to continue the occupation, to observe the answers, to follow the dossier closely and to be alert.

We also have many contacts with Members. High Pyrenees Member Jean-Bernard Sempastous, who has tabled the land law in Parliament, will also speak to us tomorrow [2 July] on this case and on a more general issue. That is also important. As he has come, other parliamentarians from the area will come with him. The electorate already has this technique, they take advantage of the moments to show themselves… We have gone a long way, we have to tighten the pressure so that they do not remain alone in communication, they have to put in place serious work, yes or yes. In the wake of the parliamentary elections, we gave them our concerns and they have done nothing. In Euskal Herria, things have deteriorated and are going to get worse. They have to do something absolutely.

If I understand it correctly, in addition to the pressure to deny the sale of Arbona, occupation is a path to political decisions that protect farmland.

That's it. Arbona's is a showcase for an ugly reality. If there are many kinds of losses of this kind, sales must always be channelled at high prices. Two hectares, seven hectares there, ten hectares here, in Senpere, in Urruña, in San Juan de Luz… if there are farmland that is sold with a house every day, and we can do nothing because the law is not adapted. In the case of Arbona, for example, SAFER has a preferential purchase request on the price of farmland, but although the maleruski law allows it, in the events the buyer and the seller have the last word: “buy but buy everything” is the path that opens up. But that cannot be, because on the one hand it is a lot of money and, on the other hand, it would be a gamble for speculation. The problem of housing is also there in the Basque Country, and it is not good to get into the logic of buying a home to save the lands.

The OECD is keeping the FDSEA trade union at the same time, the driving force behind the opposite cultivation model. What does the FDSEA say about the Bicarbonate?

FDSEA does nothing. Because I did not want to be sidelined, he did something, asking about the partial priority of buying. There is a lack of awareness of the dose, because a trade union cannot use the partial priority of buying! In these cases, the OECD asks Lurzaindia, Lurzaindia intervenes, we are a strong arm for the OECD, because in those cases the OECD cannot use this path as a union. Therefore, the FDSEA has made a small shake, but it will not have consequences; perhaps anyone who does not know the subject will believe it, but if not, we all know that it will not influence. SAFER also knows, doesn't tell him anything because they're friends with others, but it also knows that it's the wind, which is a flame that goes off right away.

Therefore, the only path is the elimination of redemption through pressure.

That is negotiated. Through occupation we want to put pressure, and Etxegarai will also do it more easily if he has pressure on the liver. The support of the electorate, the pressure of trade unions and citizens... we have a way of embarrassing the buyer. People have come to the occupation, if we have support, they are becoming a place of cruises, a small town is being assembled and that is also a good thing. The buyer and the seller can follow the movement, they're not far away. The police also pass, behind which there is a sub-prefecture and a prefecture… We are seen.

You say the buyer and the seller are not far away. However, they are millionaires living on another planet…

They're very rich, they're used to doing whatever they like, because with money you can buy almost everything. There they have to kneel in front of us... and it's not easy for them. Last year he sold 30 hectares in San Juan de Luz for twelve million euros! It's another world, and it's obvious that they don't love him when simple people throw themselves over them.

The last word: you call the occupation people.

Yes, people have to come to the occupation of Arbona, turning around to express their support. Going to Arbona, having a drink, having dinner… that is a joy for us, it gives us courage to keep fighting. It is very important to show that support.