Ziburu Bizi found 56% of the votes in the second round, but his roster colleague, Leire Larrasa (1985, Urruña), is convinced that “not all who voted were nationalists”. They are now starting to manage, trying to prove that politics can be done in a “different way”.

There was a change in Ziburu. After the party has come to you day by day, is the illusion?

This year Ziburu Bizi won the elections, but earlier, Mr Poulou’s group has been running the people for twenty years. Twenty years are many, and in the way they were managed, habits had been acquired that were not good for the people. We have seen how it works and what we want to implement. In the last six years we have been working as elected following the dossiers; today we are no longer in the opposition and it is a great challenge, but it is very motivating, because we are aware that there are many things at stake. We have to show that we are able to manage a house of the people, that we have ideas and that they are feasible. Above all, because urbanism is an important problem in our country, as 42% of the houses are second. We want to show that if the ambition is there, things can be done.

Most of them are not all Basque. How do we work on a daily basis with different political sensitivities?

The list head is abertzale, I am the first interested and I am abertzale… in the axuants we are six of the seven abertzales. It is clear that we are all left-wing, but not all of us are Basque. One objective was to make an open and varied list, non-exclusive: open to all the people who participate in the social, cultural and economic life of the city. It was a strategy and I think it has gone well. We are concerned about the big dossiers every day and we also agree with the others: we have created the programme together; we have not come here with our consolidated programme. We've worked it together, and we're going along the same lines.

From the peoples to the Basque Community, the low presence of women has again been mentioned.

Of course, the wife's place is important and we're not enough. Although we're more than before, I think we have our site, of course. It would be beautiful if, in a few years' time, a woman presided over the college.

As in Ziburu, there have been changes in other locations, such as Itsasu. Are you collaborating?

We haven't been too much with Itsaso, but we have been with Uztaritze. We worked on our program, we proposed participatory workshops, we worked on themes, and from Uztaritze came Mikel Goienetxe for urbanism and Pierre Rouget to talk about the environment. They set up district committees, and we would also like these consultative bodies to be set up shortly to set up democratic bodies. Closer also, we have held meetings with the neighbours of Urruña, we have mentioned some common issues.

Can you change things in urbanism for six years?

We have already started, we must not allow too much time to go by. With the French administration it takes time… and we would like to start some urban projects in 2021. We have different clues for building social housing, a housing device that avoids speculation, and there are other clues. I assume that for six years there will be new houses in Ziburu. Until now we have had no urban plan, as the previous group has not created it for twenty years. It is important, because that document limits things: what can be done, what can’t… If everything goes well, it will be in June.

You said that the Basque country had little room in Ziburu.

We are creating commissions from outside the village, and there is an Euskera group in them. With Eneko Gorri we have met often to see how to do things, and to present this project we sent a letter to merchants, sports associations, cultural associations, ikastolas… What we really want is to try to collect the different cultural and economic influences in this committee. We are quite satisfied, we have answered 13 times and, for example, the Red Cross wants to participate. We were surprised, we didn't think, but we were great! The idea is to carry out a reflection on the use of the Basque Country and try to ensure its place in the public space and in the Casa Consistorial.

Has it been difficult to start in the context of the pandemic?

In the schools we have had several cases, a public school was closed… These dossiers were not always easy to manage: we were in contact with families, teachers, Regional Health Agency, subprefect. But I think it has also had its good side, which is that of the merchants we are creating in those committees outside the village house, and we have brought them together at the end of July to refer to the crisis. We set up a special campaign: Come enjoy Ziburu. We try to detect alternatives to this situation.

With Ilune Duffau, Ziburu was an ambassador to the city of Telethon. Was it curious to go to Paris a country dominated by nationalists?

When they proposed it to us, we were surprised, but all the Ziburutars were glad to have taught the country. It has been an opportunity to show our solidarity in the people, our ability to mobilize. Many have participated, and it has been an opportunity to show the popular culture: joaldunak, bertsolaris… and have spoken in Basque. On television, live, when Ilune [Dufau] spoke to his friends or Odei Barroso, they did everything in Basque and we told them not to subtitle him, they understood him and they have not done translation. This people must be proud of their language, their culture and their identity. In Ziburu, the place of the Basque Country has been very small, and the culture, folkloric. Through Telethona we have stressed that we are a people, that we have our culture and our language and that we must be proud of it.