Such puppets soon become a burden. Moreover, when what the boyero sends is not what the ox wants. As in all the Houses of the People, in Uztaritze, the pastor is prefect, it is he who sets the course, like French legislation.

In the House of the People of Uztaritze are the Abertzales who have ruled since they won the 2014 elections. The Abertzale group has split in two. The main issue is that of the Basque Country, which comes from far away. One of the first decisions of the new House of the People of Uztaritze was that the Basque was official in Uztaritze. The prefect – the cowboy – obviously resorted to this decision and the measure was never complied with.

Some elected officials claim the right to express themselves in Basque at local council meetings and, in order to guarantee that right, to offer simultaneous translation. However, the fact that each one reproduces his intervention in French, after doing so in Basque, is not to treat the Basque with dignity – and he who wants to speak in Basque –. In the session in which they left office, the five voters spoke only in Basque, and the mayor did not translate his words and did not put translators in. Mayor Bruno Carrere told the press that these voters knew that the law did not authorize: “We have received a letter from the prefecture of the Atlantic Pyrenees saying that the simultaneous translation system is not legal in a local council. You know very well, you've received that letter; you know that the translation system is not legal, you know that speaking only in Basque is not legal. They decided that, knowing that he could not, he could not take into account his contribution” (April 14, 2019). Rosa Parks also knew that she had acted against U.S. law when she refused to get out of her bus seat and leave the chair to a white man… Bruno Carrere has decided to comply with an unfair law and, therefore, renounce a measure that can give dignity to the Basque. He has preferred to make some of his colleagues satisfied with the prefect. He has chosen to follow a French repressive law, denying its ideological bases.

What if the mayor had agreed to translate the words of those five voters or bring them a random translator? That the prefect was going to report and go to court? And what? Isn't that better than belittling the Basque people? Let us suppose that the prefect prosecutes the people of Uztaritze, the historic capital of Lapurdi, for considering the translation illegal. This would create a political crisis, beyond Uztaritze, to the whole of Euskal Herria. In the absence of a few months of the votes of the people, all the other agents would be forced to get wet: elected officials of other peoples, Euskal Elkargoa, EEP, other institutions… The absurdity of the case would be denounced. It would create a mobilization in favor of the official status of the Basque Country, which has not existed for a long time... This disobedience would extend to other houses of the people. In other words, a conflict of great symbolic burden can arise in favor of the Basque Country, the media, the mobilizer… A soka-strip against France. Maybe we wouldn't win -- or yes! First of all, there is no longer any chance of success, with the Gacha head and under the prefect's authority. Or do you fear that by defending too much the Basque Country will lose votes? And what? What do we need nationalists for, if they do not have to help more than that in Basque?

This article was written by Eneko Bidegain and published by the Weekly Enbata. We bring Argia thanks to the CC-By-SA license