The amendments to the Basque Law require the support of 26 of the 50 parliamentarians, so to fulfill Mañeru’s wish and move from the “non-vascophony” area to the mixed area, the votes of Geroa Bai, EH Bildu, Ahal Dugu and the Left Left are not enough. Aware of this, these parties have resorted during these months to the door of the PSN to join the Mañeru proposal. In the absence of an answer, Mr Jabi Arakama told us that they have finally taken the proposal to Parliament and that they are going to vote in one month, but on Monday Ramon Alzorriz of the PSN spoke clearly, who at the moment do not have the will to expand the mixed area, "we are now concerned and concerned about what affects the day to day of the Navarros".

“I don’t think you understand it in Mañeru”

Hearing the words of PSN and Navarra Suma, Arakama says that neither one nor the other seems to support the petition, “but at the same time both spokesmen said that they had not made the decision 100% and therefore we will continue trying to convince it until the last moment.” The PSN’s attitude has not surprised Arakama so much, “given that we have been several months behind them to join the bill and that we have not managed to sign”. However, the sociolinguistic reality used by the socialists as an argument in these cases is very clear in Mañeru, three quarters of the children of the town, for example, are enrolled in model D in Puente la Reina, “and we should all have few doubts, so if there is another reason they will have to explain it,” says Arakama, adding that the elections are there.

The parliamentarian of Geroa Bai says that the citizens of Mañeru will hardly be able to understand if the PSN votes no, and recalls that in the surveys that have been carried out in the village most of the neighbours have shown themselves in favour of moving to the mixed area.

Priorities and secondary rights

The representative of the SNP has now argued that concern and responsibility is another, and they are familiar words to us, because we Basques have often reproached the issue of priorities in order to step up language rights. “It’s a clear excuse,” says Arakama. We are also very concerned about waiting lists in health, about the precariousness of employment, about the problems of access to decent housing… but language rights can never be in the background, because there are other serious problems. This excuse has been used on other occasions and the parties on the right try to confront rights, but we do not believe in any case that we should start to confront rights, but to add rights. As was made clear in his request by the plenary of the City of Mañeru, because we are talking about rights, and the rights of the Basques of Mañeru will be better guaranteed if the people enter the mixed area. Furthermore, guaranteeing the rights of the Basques does not harm the Basque”.

“The Basque Country has to be official throughout Navarre”

In this sense, the parliamentarian says that the zoning of Navarre makes no sense, “has never had it, and now less: the social, political and sociolinguistic reality of 1986 has nothing to do with the current one, and as Geroa Bai has always said, we have to amend the Basque Law, end zoning and the Basque Country has to be official throughout Navarre. It is true that the sociolinguistic reality is very diverse in Navarre, and I understand that the service offered by the municipalities of Buñuel or Kortes is different from that of Leitza or Goizueta, but the Basque country has to be official throughout the territory. The problem is that in the Parliament of Navarra there has never been a majority in favour of it.”