What is not Euskaraldia?

Elena Laka: Euskaraldia is not a campaign, but an act that will take place at any given time. It is a social exercise that we propose to society, an exercise of change of customs, of long breathing, of breaks. It requires rooting. We laughed [look at Dobaran] and, if you allow me, it's not following the diet, but changing eating habits. It's not a bikini operation. Now we're going to do the social exercise, but what we want is to leave a mark.

Look at Dobaran. We say it is a training, if we want to influence the use we will not achieve it with magic, especially taking into account the characteristics of our speakers. There are new speakers, training is needed to use the second language. It's a training, and this year we started with individual training. This line of work will continue. If we want to influence use, we must start training. The accessions are over, the campaigns are over and let us start talking about Basque.

What does Euskaraldia want?

R. Lacquer: The main objective is to promote use, to break inertia, to change habits, it is not a matter of favor, to take a picture saying that I am from Euskaraldia. This entails the following objectives: preventing, activating, empowering speakers. Euskaraldia is very important, but also how we are making the way: through social cohesion, collaboration, institutions, other actors, the social movement… The collaboration that is being created, of energy, of impulse… is also an objective.

M. Dobaran: Consolidate and organize the basis for all use activities and initiatives. On the one hand, start training the individual, create an environment as welcoming and comfortable as possible for them. On the other hand, to train in collaboration between institutions and social agents. Above all because we have realized the influence and strength of the accumulation of forces in the movement carried out so far. I do not believe that this can only be done by the government.

R. Lacquer: Not even the social movement. We need the two legs plus the other agents and institutions. Because I am not just talking about the Basque Government, here are the institutions of the Basque Country. It would not be possible to propose a social exercise as big as the one we have in our heads.

M. Dobaran: Throughout the Basque Country. Only the three governments, or just the institutions, or the social partners, we couldn't, we're very weak. This will be a training, and then you have a line of work.

From now on, I understand that to create other options such as Euskaraldia.

R. Lacquer: Not only opportunities, but also a path, a way of acting. Institutions, agents, social movements… This way of working is being fruitful and effective, so let us continue with this path. There's an environment. The aim is to continue along this path.

M. Dobaran: The Basque Government has made that point. We must open a path that has no setbacks, and if in the process of revitalizing the Basque Country we do not accumulate such forces, at the moment when we are right now it will be difficult to make progress. Accession has been achieved, but now we have to activate the people, that is, to live in Basque. You can regulate it by decree in your workplace: “The government works in Euskera,” yes, but the coffee machine is made in Spanish. A decree of incidence on private life has no strength, but a social exercise.

Dynamics of collaboration between people and people have been promoted, both by municipalities and by the social agents who have worked together around the Basque country. What have the relationships been like?

R. Lacquer: There are very different experiences. In some localities, commissions have been set up in Euskaraldia, in which the associations of Euskera are located. On many other occasions this nucleus has spread in layers, in which the other agents of the people, companies... More people have participated outside that core, which we were used to. In general, more than 400 municipalities are participating and we are satisfied. In some towns the City Hall has thrown more, in others the movements of the locality. Each people has sought their formula, and that is also important. This is not a formula that has been fully promised. A form has been proposed to the peoples and each form has been adapted.

M. Dobaran: From what I have seen, the social agents have also internalized that responsibility is shared, that this is not a thing of the associations of Euskera, “that, of Euskera…”, or that this is not a matter of linguistic policy, “the institutions have to do”. At least thought has been given to: “What can I do?” The decision has to be made by yourself… For us it was very difficult to get there, to tell people what they have to do. The Government can surround him as comfortably as possible, but if in the Ikastola group of parents they are all belarriprest or ahobizi and they all do it in Spanish, it is difficult to influence, and at least now it is seen that people have a purpose to change language habits. In any case, we will see what is concrete.

Euskalgintza has had years of standing. Has the preparation of Euskaraldia served to activate this space?

R. Lacquer: If we talk about the Basque associations, it has certainly served to revitalise the associations. Not exactly the partners of the association or the people moving around the area, but the area has spread a lot. So far people who have not participated so much in the world of Basque culture are participating.

M. Dobaran: New faces are being seen from the early assemblies and from all ages, not just young people. Today it is difficult to attract people and therefore it is a joy.

R. Lacquer: We're not asking to participate in a hearing, go to a demonstration and then go home. For eleven days we are asking to do something that affects each other's lives.

M. Dobaran: An effort.

R. Lacquer: And people are responding well.

M. Dobaran: It's not just exercise, it prepares your environment before exercise, it talks about what's coming, that is, it prepares the most stable state possible to exercise. I mean, it's hard what we're asking for, and people are responding well. There's a suspicion of wanting to do the training, and the difference is that we're seeing a lot of new speakers. The characteristics of the new speakers are different. Many new young speakers have learned Euskera at school or at ikastola, have not had so many opportunities to speak in Euskera in their environment or in their family. They have Euskera as a school language and are not used to using it in the informal sphere, they have competition problems. They have not been overlooked by the fact that they have to live in Basque. We asked them to suddenly speak in Basque. And now they're entering Euskaraldia.

For example, the left margin, the movement there is not normal. That is where research really has to be done. When in Sestao the percentage of Euskaldunes and almost Euskaldunes is so small, we have to bear in mind the movement there is. There is a desire, a will, one more step.

Do you think the Euskaraldia message is spreading correctly? Sestao mentioned Miren. If in the towns of the Commonwealth of Basque Municipalities (UEMA) they do not represent the easy exercise, believing that they live in Basque.

R. Lacquer: The latest research indicates that there are increasing cracks in the respiratory areas. People may not realize it. The other time I was in Azpeitia explaining Euskaraldia, and one woman said to me: “We talk every day.” If you do so, you can notice it. Because it often happens that among Euskaldunes, believing that they speak in Basque, they change their language and are not aware of change. The UEMA, however, is doing another job. Awareness is the same for Sestao, Salvatierra or Tudela, and also for Azpeitia or Zestoa.

M. Dobaran: Lea Artibai has been the region that has cost us the most, as they live in Basque and do not see the need. I always say that when the people of Lea Artibai come to Bilbao they have tremendous influence. Surely during those eleven days you will go to Bilbao or to university. Those are our ambassadors, others open their eyes, the new speakers see that you can live in Basque. In Lea Artibai you will not see the need in your people, but you also have to do the process of empowerment and know that you are very important to revitalize the Basque in your people and outside your people.

Euskaraldia is a concrete proposal. Have the agents had the scope to make the adaptations? Have they considered that the type of exercise is not appropriate?

R. Lacquer: Euskaraldia provides a framework for this exercise for the entire Basque Country. It has been done in some villages. In Egia [Donostia district], in Lasarte-Oria, in Salvatierra/Agurain, you know very well what that dynamic is and now we will extend it to other peoples. Nobody has told us that it is not comfortable and that they would do it that way or otherwise.

M. Dobaran: It has adapted to local characteristics. In Getxo, they've created the smile figure. In the village there are a lot of new speakers, as the parents of one age made a determined bet to send their children to the ikastola. They thought about paying homage to fathers and mothers. They don't get deaf ears, but they think they're very important to create a cozy and comfortable environment.

Local adaptations are very good, as UEMA has done with empowerment. Basque Country is plural.

This is a sponsored, consensual exercise in which a warm environment will be created, where participants will identify with each other. In reality, unfortunately, there are conflicting moments in which one tries to speak in Basque. Didn't they put out more courageous exercises?

R. Lacquer: Euskaraldia is closely linked to reality. We propose people to exercise in everyday reality. We give a framework, where a social convention is going to be. What is that social agreement? I know it in Basque, because the first word I am going to do in Basque. If you don't know, we'll have to fix it. And if you're attentive, you accept speaking to yourself in Basque. It will be in my daily life, in my crew, in my work, and in my case I go to Bilbao, even in the courthouse, in the doctor or in the shopping. The latter are outside my sweet setting. You will participate or not, but for you to know that throughout Euskal Herria we are eleven days in Euskaraldia and I tell you that if I wear a veneer, I will be drowning or belarriprest and that the rules are these.

What can't we get everywhere? It is difficult for something to reach all layers of society, but our intention is to reach most places. That is not going to solve all the problems around the Basque country? Of course, Euskaraldia is not magic, as Miren said, but we will lay the foundations for the social agreement, where we will agree in what language we will speak. I think we are putting solid beams on it.

M. Dobaran: The goal would be to normalize training, to make it fashionable. It would be normal for him to speak to me in Spanish and I would speak to him in Basque. Why don't we consider it normal? We need training, it's true, it's new and it's uncomfortable. Because we came from that culture. This is happening in other countries. I do not know who was telling us in Europe: “Why do you see it so weird? It’s normal, in business and everything.” But it has never been done here and the figure of Belarriprest is very strange. When you train and you see that nothing happens, you can gradually become the norm. On the other hand, it is not our intention to always be belarriprest. Use implies use. Let conversations become bilingual norms. That's the way. Because in all our peoples we have to wait for 90% to be Euskaldun? That doesn't make sense.

Can Euskaraldia undermine the responsibility of public institutions and place the burden on the citizens to revitalize Euskera?

R. Lacquer: We think it will be the other way around. Empowered citizenship, with all its rights and personality, will go anywhere and speak in Basque the first word, even going to an institution. In the end, that will create other dynamics. Empowered speakers will not be on the side of the table, they will also be inside. One thing is the organization and the other is the people who work in it. This has happened in the villages where previous experiences have been carried out. The institutions have seen the need, without ruling out the fact that the need has become more acute.

M. Dobaran: There will be more pressure, more demand, more movement. But yes, I understand that we're going to have to take the leadership to explore new things. Most parents have chosen model D, but parents have decided on a massive scale that their children know Basque, not that they live in Basque. Well, look. We have taken this step. In Europe, when you say this, you do not understand it. How parents can decide that their children learn in a minority language in such an advanced society. They have the title, but what we are asking now is for them to be able to live in Basque. What decree does it bring to this end? Spanish and English are the languages that accompany them, very powerful languages. In the digital environment, they have everything in those two languages. We are very weak.

Influencing the use is not that easy. We need to explore new paths, and experts tell us that we need to connect language with emotions to influence usage, with motivation, that is, with prohibitions and the obligation not to attract people.

You said you want to influence the institutions in 2019. What functions will these entities perform in the Basque Country this year?

R. Lacquer: This year they have participated in particular local assemblies, agents, associations, but also companies, traders and traders. Some companies are acting as agents, that is to say, they are pushing drowning and belarriprest within their workplace.

What will we do next year? We will have to measure the first year. It remains to be seen in detail how we are going to reincorporate companies, individuals… in the exercises and events of the coming years.

M. Dobaran: Some are making great compromises. For example, the other day we were in the government with almost all the large companies and we saw that for them the Euskaraldia brand is very positive. It is not normal that so many large companies come to talk to us and tell us, “we want to participate in Euskaraldia”. They also have plans for Euskera, it's not spontaneous. We told them: you know that your workers will surely participate in Euskaraldia, so we let you work with plates. And they nodded.

Tomorrow or the day after, if the individual effort has been this year, the collective effort will also have to be raised. Other decisions will have to be taken in the world of work, for that the environment is very good.

Do you know what it means to accept Euskaraldia? I mean, isn't it about putting the Euskaraldia posters? Clients must be cared for in Euskera and, if they do not, they will have complaints.

M. Dobaran: They will have to answer if they see that language for people is serious and to take into account. We have a thousand supermarkets to choose from. You have to know. For its part, there is a change and when we are going to exercise collectively there is a good starting point. You don't have to start from scratch. There is a possibility of serious exercise.

What would be the success in Euskaraldia?

R. Lacquer: We do not want success, we want most of the people possible to participate, lay the foundations, take root, we do not want a trending TOPIC. We want the exercise to leave that rest, to change language habits and to move on.

M. Dobaran: Success is doing social exercise well. It doesn't matter to me whether 75,000 is 100,000 or 200,000. It is a question of understanding exactly what the exercise is, that each one prepares his field well, that he gets used to activating others, that he does it well for eleven days and from day twelve. That's success. If each speaker manages to change some customs. Asking me, if I manage to speak in Basque with the pharmacy from now on? I realized I understood it. Small changes are a success, because we know that changing habits is what costs the most in our private environment.

R. Lacquer: I do not know if we have given him enough strength in the interview, but the exercise is all over Euskal Herria. It has never been done.

M. Dobaran: It has been an interinstitutional collaboration and that has a great deal of strength. For example, we have made a three-way pact with the Government of Navarre and with the Basque Government. Enter Navarre with a program of promotion of the Basque Country, coming from Iparralde. We don't know what it is. Two years ago it was impossible. To acknowledge the relationship we have achieved with the Basque world and with the social partners. We have been a little higher up, but a great deal of work has also been done in the municipalities. Municipalities and social partners have worked together and have had to overcome the mistrust. There are hours and hours, voluntary, individual and other hours.

Breaking the coordination we have achieved would be a great pity. We will see what happens in the forthcoming elections. If there's change, we settle for maintaining relationships and continuing to make way together, because with this build-up of forces, I don't know where we can go, but you can do big things.