Nor will there be a subsidy from the Ayala Media in the municipal budgets of Amurrio 2025. The government has decided so. This afternoon’s Plenary Session will discuss and vote on the local entity’s economic planning for this year and, like last year, will not take into account the agreement signed with the Ayala Media.

On May 24, 2024, it was reported that the Amurrio City Council withdrew the grant that had been in force for 12 years from the only Basque language media in the region, from one day to the next and without any prior notification.

In fact, the Aiaraldea Media received the news in April through unofficial channels. Members of the media then tried to meet with the mayor, who refused to do so (for today, the media is still waiting for an official to announce this meeting and the withdrawal of the subsidy).

1,700 voices heard

Given the situation, the issue was brought to the public square and an adhesion campaign was launched between agents and individuals from both Amurrio and the region. The initiative was a notable success: in just a few weeks the manifesto in favor of the Basque media received 1,700 adherents, including more than 500 associations and neighbors of Amurrio. The campaign ended on June 21 during a mass demonstration outside Amurrio City Hall.

The manifesto was read by former handball player Patri Pinedo and Manolo Plaza (recently retired Olentzero of Amurrio), who made several requests to the City Council. On the one hand, a meeting with the Ayaraldea Media to restart and normalize the collaboration between the two entities, restore the subsidy and update the amount of this economic support, “equating it with the contribution of the rest of the municipalities of the region”. On the other hand, they asked him to “strengthen collaboration” with the agents of the dialect of both the municipality and the region in order to become an “active agent” in the “process of revitalization of the Basque language”.

New proposal without response

A period of three months was also granted for this purpose until 21 September. But the summer passed and the City Council did not respond to these demands. What’s more, he again refused to just hold a meeting to discuss the issue. Given the circumstances, Aiaraldea Media extended to Josune Aglen a formal request to mediate in this conflict. In September, the former mayor of Amurrio was appointed Basque Director of the Basque Government, which is why he was considered the ideal person to mediate and seek consensus with the current municipal government of Amurrio.

This attempt at mediation, however, did not bear fruit. The media sent a new proposal to channel the conflict to the City of Amurrio in November, but in this case there was no response from the local organization. With the new year comes the only response from the City Council: Elimination of the subsidy for the Basque media from the budgets of 2025.