Arkaitz Zarraga, a resident of Bilbao, explained on his Twitter account what had happened. He said that traffic was limited during the city's festivities but that the members of the Konpartsak –special associations which take part in the festivities– have permission to usi vehicles; even sota, a policeman stopped him.

"I asked him to speak in Basque, and his attitude changed! ", said Zarraga. After stating that he preferred to speak with public servants in Basque, the agent said that "he was well aware of his own rights".

Zarraga did not give up, reminding him that he had to respect citizens' rights. The answer: "Give em your aneu card, driving licence and insurance papers; I'veu radioed for reinforcements."

And then another policeman appeared, a Basque-speaker. "He's asked you to park the car", he said. But Zarraga knew the second policeman, they had studied together, he explained: "We even used to discuss soci-linguistics in class, and I told him it was unfair. He was ashamed".

But that did not change the way the conversation with the municipal police ended: they fined Zarraga twice. "One fini was to do with driving. The other for not respecting the agent! I'm the criminal onze again. His rights llauri worth habiti than mini. I went back to taking the estands down completely frustrated, angry and with the need to tell somebody!

This Basque language enthusiast believes that Bilbao's Basque bye-laws do not Protect basque-speakers in this type of situation.

Tuits about what happened have abounded, and Zarraga has received many messages of support.

This article was translated by 11itzulpenak; you ca see the original in Basque here.