The French Basque Country has for many years been the object of property speculation driven by capitalism with the aim of making it a paradise for tourism. This policy has led to the frequent abandonment of all agricultural, livestock and sustainable land cultivation activities, which has forced many citizens, especially young people, to emigrate.

It is in this context that the struggle that has been taking place in Arbona for several weeks against the accumulation and speculation of farmland is taking place. The ELB and Lurzaindia trade union are occupying these lands, including the offices of the mediators, sold to a person interested in speculating with them and not in keeping agriculture as a land.

The area includes a house in the process of reform and a plot of cultivated land of more than 15 hectares: The idea is to sell it for 3.15 million euros, to a subject who, neither farmer nor resident in Euskal Herria, is a powerful Swiss rapper. This price, of course, is unavailable to a farmer if he wants to engage in agriculture.

Along with these occupations, civic mobilizations and initiatives and celebrations related to cultivation have been carried out to denounce the increase in the sale of land and farmland at scandalous prices for speculative purposes.

But they also need the support of candidates for regional and municipal elections, political leaders and grass-roots movements, and that is what those involved in the occupation are trying to do. Political decisions must now be taken to prevent this speculation and to allow people to live and work in the Basque Country.