The clowns that delight children in laughter, condemned to live in precarious conditions with humiliating pensions to our older people who have spent their entire lives working, to live every day in fear of precariousness and violence, to young people sentenced to 10 years in prison for a simple bar fight.

In short, we are in a situation where unanswered claims, injustices and violations of rights are excessive. At the same time, however, we are faced with a society that does not hesitate to go out into the streets to ask for what it deserves and a better future. And we will do so, once again, on 21 December in Pamplona, to remember that there are still people deprived of their liberty by the justice system, and that the State continues to apply the emergency penitentiary policy and, furthermore, continues to deny basic rights such as the right to be close to their relatives, the right to health and life, access to the normal channels permitted by the current legislation, the right to social reintegration… they continue to violate these rights. But we will also go out into the streets to show that this situation does not benefit anyone, that hatred and revenge do not bring more hatred and more pain. Has our people not suffered enough? On 21 December, we want to send a clear message in favour of the coexistence that society so desperately demands, because the majority of that society is willing to exercise empathy.

For political reasons, there are currently 37 prisoners in Navarra. According to the census, 941 people make up the nearby environment of these 37 prisoners. All of them, each time they have to visit their family and friends in prison, are condemned to travel hundreds of kilometres on endless journeys and to endanger the “life and the treasury” on journeys they should never have undertaken, provided that the law and common sense had been present. If they are not to blame, why punish families if not for revenge and the desire to generate more suffering. This is a cruel reality since ETA disappeared ten years after its last armed action and one and a half years later, even more so when numerous national and international bodies are emphasising the urgent need to find a definitive solution to this problem and to build a lasting peace, and when numerous forums of multilateral victims have shown the need and willingness to move forward on that path.

This reality is absolutely unacceptable in a Navarre with the degree of well-being and development of the most advanced Europe. It seems that we do not want to learn from our past or from the realities that we see around us. This society is calling for a better future than the one we inherit, for the generations that have come a future based on peace and coexistence.

There are many of us who think this way, that on this occasion an unbeatable opportunity has been opened and that it should not be wasted; a new opportunity, theoretically with correlations of strength in favor of solutions, both in the Cortes of Madrid and in the main institutions of Navarra. Experience has shown us that solutions do not come in with the simple opening of the window. You have to push them hard down the street to end up making room. That is why it is so important that you are in Pamplona on the 21st day to push the solutions down the street and that this time nobody closes the windows.

Mikel Globñano
Jone Premio.
(On behalf of Sare Navarra)