Baiona was the first City of Alternatives in 2013, and the second in Bilbao in 2015. What valuation do you make of the journey made? Very
positive assessment. At first, it was very focused on climate change, but it was acquiring an increasingly comprehensive vision, and we've gone on to talk about the alternatives and processes that we need as a people. It has allowed us to accumulate forces to both small and large. The socio-trade union movement has realised that a great effort is being made to reject waste through general strikes and other dynamics: “no to cuts”, “no to capitalism”, “no to these working conditions”… We have worked less the yes and came to deal with that Letter of Social Rights of Euskal Herria. The People of Alternatives is the main exponent of this. Since that particular day, our challenge is to make the leap every day.

And how is that vast space in health that wants to put an alternative to capitalism?
It's the bombardment we get every day in the system. In the face of that, there's a big disappointment, and that's why it's key to ideologically believe that we can build another world. Alternatives are often closer than we think. Many alternatives are being built since childhood: in the world of energy, in food, in technology, in body diversity… Our emptiness is that all these alternatives are very dispersed.

There are many, and also, as is normal, the most important thing for each is his own. This often makes it difficult to think about global alternatives.
We should try to think from each other’s point of view, but in general, putting everyone’s grain within a common framework. That is why mutual knowledge and interaction is the key.

In Navarre there is a great political division in society (nationality, language…) and this is also reflected in part in the social sphere. Is it the people of the alternatives who manage to bring the most social poles of both areas closer together?
We'd like to. In the end, our claim is that all social rights for all citizens, and that is in the interest of the social majority as a whole. Our motto is “sovereign life with full rights”, and there are also cultural and linguistic rights, the defense of the Basque Country. But we highly appreciate the diversity and mutual knowledge between different origins, so Alternatiben Herria should serve to reach a broad framework.

In the face of a specific day, many networks are sewn. Are they then maintained?
In some cases, yes. After that of Bilbao, the nature district has managed to weave networks and now, for example, in Ziordia (Navarra), they have made meetings to reflect on the lines of work and future strategies. The mobilisations of 8 March, those of pensioners … there are areas in which society is alive. In short, we are increasingly concerned about the current model of life, we feel the responsibility to change our individual and collective practices, and it costs, but we know that we must.

The need for transformation is widespread in society: to live better, to have dignified working conditions, to stop destroying nature, to have a dignified old age, to be free as women… And from many places, and from the People of Alternatives, we are managing to link all this with multi-causal sovereignty.