Palacio de Arozteguía S.L. has denounced for the third time the mayor of Baztan, Joseba Otondo, for an alleged crime of prevarication. For this reason, on 1 December he appeared at the Court of Instruction No. 1 of Pamplona/Iruña to make a statement.

Last year, the Baztan City Council suspended the authorization of the works that the promoters had obtained for the first phase of the Aroztegi project ‘thanks to administrative silence’. For this purpose, the Casa del Ball was based on a report from the Architectural Heritage Service of the Government of Navarra. In the opinion of the legal services of the City Council, this report was contrary to the construction of a hotel and ancillary services, but according to the Department of Culture of the Government of Navarre ‘they were merely advice on the architectural elements to be built’ and went to the City Hall of Baztan for it to request compliance with the regulations.

Since EH Bildu in the Baztan Valley, they have pointed out that the demonstration is free. ‘In the current political and institutional framework, the Mayor is the representative of the democratic expression of citizenship, which is due to the expression of citizenship and the public interest’. However, ‘Palacio de Arozteguía wants to overthrow the judiciary, over and over again, in order to humiliate the mayor in his own words. They want to use their economic hegemony to bend institutions and political representatives. And that cannot be tolerated,’ they denounced.

In view of this, EH Bildu de Baztan wishes to condemn the ‘judicial persecution’ of Aroztegi’s promoters, ‘while denouncing their utterly undemocratic conduct’.

Several neighbours concentrated on the outside of the court on 1 December in support of and solidarity with Joseba Otondo, in order to denounce this latest complaint lodged by the Ertzaintza. Otondo himself denounced that the promoters “use their enormous economic capacity to prosecute dozens of neighbours and neighbours of Baztan.”