Last May, 61 social movements and unions jointly convened in the week La Vida is the Biggest Social Struggle. ERNAI held a press conference against the entrance to a hotel which will be opened shortly. At the end of the meeting, several Ertzainas went to the site to identify a person participating in the hearing. Immediately a lung was formed and the Ertzaines began to identify the neighbors and the journalists who were recording the situation.

When the situation was appeasing, an Ertzaina asked him in Spanish to identify a citizen who spoke to him in Basque and asked him to speak in Basque. That caused more anger and more tumult. The Observatory on Linguistic Rights, Behatokia, made a formal complaint via Twitter.

The Basque Government’s Department of Security has formally responded to the Behatokia Linguistic Rights Observatory. It reads as follows:

“The head of the Ertzain-etxea de San Sebastian has expressly determined that the rights of the citizens that appear in the video were not respected, to relate in Basque with the acting agents, despite what happened in a tense police action and at the end one of the agents went to Basque”.

Then, the head of the Ertzain-etxea has stated that the officers have apologized: “The Ertzainas who intervened in the activity and the command panel of the unit have been informed of what good practice is and we have been specifically asked to convey their apologies for their part.”

The Centre acknowledges that this is a step in the right direction, but that the citizens deserve the guarantee of their rights beyond their recognition. Finally, the Centre has congratulated the empowered Basques and invited them to follow this line of action.

ARGIA recorded and broadcast the event in video.