Zygoitia is in shock. After the elections, they suddenly bring us to the table a macro-project of photovoltaic panels with the aim of covering the enormous extension of agricultural land. This project has now come to light, when those politicians who asked us for the vote have already given their approval (silence and passing over the city halls), and look!, when only the right time is left for the presentation of allegations so that we can somehow oppose the project. And all the major media in silence until the end of the election.

The same is also being done in some parts of Álava, and in other countries, with the aim of filling huge spaces with photovoltaic panels and gigantic wind mills. All this under the mask that they are "ecological" macro-projects, although in the end they will only serve to fill Solaria's pockets and have an enormous environmental and social impact.

And when people's reaction starts to materialize, we find news like the one that was broadcast on ETB2, news that Africa Baeta spread on the informative Teleberri on May 16 with the following phrase: "The protests of agricultural land and renewables in defense follow in Álava, Araba..." [Protests continue in Álava over agricultural land and against renewables]. We don't know if we're in the fallacy zone or directly in the raw lie zone. If we take into account that the beginning of the reaction movement has begun with clear slogans like Renewables yes, but not so that each one judges. In any case, the intention to manipulate is obvious.

What happens is that we know that things can be done differently. There is no need to destroy agricultural and natural areas with macrostructures. In fact, one of the keys to minimum environmental and social impact from renewable technologies is scale, and one of the positive aspects of these technologies is that they can be perfectly implemented on a small scale. In fact, even though the energy source is sufficiently renewable, any project on the "macro" scale has a tremendous impact on the environment, that is, if the transition to renewables is a real improvement, it is absolutely necessary to change the scale and exploitation model. But, of course, if this were the case, the benefits that companies like Solaria could obtain from these kinds of assemblies would not be so juicy either...

They say there's no more blind than the one they don't want to see. The development of this mega-project, which has progressed silently through the administrative route until the possibilities of citizen reaction are very low, and which does not see that it has been done without drawing political attention and the main media, is because it does not want to see. Now, in the face of the reaction, some politicians pretend to be ignorant and hit the chest to conquer sympathies and relieve the anger of the people, making him see that "there are those who care"... at the end "we have done what could be done, but it has not been possible, what are we going to do!" to end with.

It is absolutely incredible that the main aspects are not aware of the development of these macro-projects until the last moment. They have kept their intention silent and wait for the elections to be held to release the bomb, which complicates their whole assembly. I refer to all political authorities and the main media. If any of them had emerged before the issue and had stimulated some, the popular movement against Solaria’s projects would have been much more organized and strong, beyond the farmers and farmers who have been warning of what is happening for some time. However, they seem to have done the opposite, they have contributed to the project moving forward to the last moment with the least publicity and opposition.

And this puts local politicians in a special position. It is so obvious that your chief managers have complied with the interests of a company like Solaria... What are you going to do? Are they going to be held to account or are they going to lower their ears and follow internal discipline? Will they defend their peoples against macro-projects that destroy their lives or will they be the first to say "we have done what we have been able to, but there is no task..."? I have one clear thing: a false friend is worse than a recognized enemy.

Mikel Larrañaga Arrangi

Bachelor of Philosophy, Doctor of History, neighbor of Zigoitia