The Gasteiz Theatre – Euskararen Etxea is having a very long career. Too long, to choose. In the 1990s, the idea of opening a reference space centered on culture in Euskera began to spread in Vitoria. In 2008-2009, through an agreement between Eusko Alkartasuna and the Socialist Party, the study and the next proposal for the Gasteiz Antzokia project was elaborated, and the Municipal Plenary unanimously approved that Vitoria-Gasteiz was an Basque cultural center. In October 2014, when the Popular Party was mayor, an agreement was signed between the city council and the cultural association Lazarraga in charge of the elaboration of the project. In this event, Oihaneder Euskararen Etxea was launched, which has been the support and respiratory center of the Basque Country until June 2022. Since its inception, the location of the Teatro Vitoria has been the subject of debate, since during these years the suitability of some public buildings for the project has been proposed and analyzed. In 2018, the final location of the project was decided in the palace of the Ruiz de Bergara of Errementari Street.

Clearly, for the development of strategic projects such as this, it is essential to define areas of collaboration between public and private institutions. It is a city project, worked with great consensus, which takes advantage of experience and mutual knowledge, guarantees the resources and sustainability of the project, and aims to increase the impact of cultural activities and the audience, among others. It is certainly an initiative that generates social, cultural and economic wealth. Everyone has been assigned their tasks and responsibilities, but in this type of project there is usually an unbalanced relationship and, often, the rhythm is conditioned by the public body’s action, the lack of transparency and/or inadequate management, as well as the viability of the project itself or the entity managing it.

During all these years, Lazarraga Kultur Elkartea has led the project of Gasteiz Antzokia and has worked on both the technical proposal and the cultural programming to expand the cultural space in autumn 2023. Currently, they continue to work with the objective of sharing the cultural offer, the calls and so on. In September 2022, 18 months ago, the palace’s works ended and there are still some unchannelled palace supplies, such as the audiovisual one, although in the last legislature the responsible councillor dictated that it was being processed.

These days we are asking for the necessary momentum to get the project going for once. Because the opening of space is being delayed more than it should be, as we have denounced. We are seeing the situation of the project with concern. In fact, since Oihaneder Euskararen Etxea was closed in 2022, Vitoria-Gasteiz has no Basque cultural center. We managed to be a reference meeting point in the city, a space for the enjoyment of the Basque, a space for the enjoyment of the comfortable Basque, with a broad, prosperous and participative cultural offer for all the public, and in recent months we have been left without a reference center that offers us a rich cultural offer and without a plan B.

We are aware that the present government is trying to solve this serious situation. It has been too long since the City Hall ordered the opening of a new cultural space, but, despite having requested it, we still have no concrete opening date. Therefore, aware of the seriousness of the situation, it is necessary to request the urgent processing of the long-promised and missing tenders, to open the doors with guarantees the new cultural spaces.

Vitoria-Gasteiz has often been exemplary in the revitalization of the Basque country and has been able to propose pioneering projects and new forms of collaboration. We hope that we will continue to recover the reference as soon as we have available this new square that we deserve and need.

Rober Gutiérrez, Euskaltzale