The argument was built by Judge Garzón, who stated that the Gara newspaper was Egin’s “ideological follow-up”. Several criteria are used to decide whether there is “business continuity”, but three are the main ones: having the same capital and having the same workers and goods. In the case of Gara, there was none of this: it was another company, another capital, other goods – those of Egin depended on the courts – some workers were equal and others were not… But it was also enough to dedicate them to an equal reading space.

Gara paid EUR 4.7 million. Unable to pay, Baigorri S.A. went bankrupt and was ordered to “suspend payments”. Thereafter, all the company's accounts must be guarded by the inspectors determined by the judge. It is still in this situation, so in order to make the least expenditure, they must do so with the consent of the Financial Controller.
Gara has infringed all legal avenues to prove that it has not committed any “business tracking” crime, but everything has been in vain. In 2003, Baigorri, S.A. appealed to the Central Court of Litigation of the National Court, requesting the suspension of the administrative procedure of business follow-up. In November 2005, the National High Court gave Baigorri, S.A. reason, but the Social Security filed a new appeal, and in October 2006, the National Hearing Litigation Chamber gave the Spanish institution the reason. Baigorri, S.A., made the last effort by referring to the Constitutional Court, which in 2008 did not accept the appeal either.

July 15, 1998 On
that day, when this journalist arrived at the Argia de Lasarte-Oria office 21 years ago, the radio confirmed the news: At the head of Baltasar Garzón, hundreds of policemen recorded Egin’s headquarters in Hernani. Operation Persiana was under way. The worst was confirmed immediately: the judge ordered the "indefinite closure" of Egin and Egin Irratia considering that this was a part of the ETA structures. It was the first newspaper that, for political or ideological reasons, closed the Spanish “young democracy”, with a total violation of the right to information.

He approached Hernani and the scene was harsh, egin workers and many citizens facing the police barrier, unable to believe in the nightmare. Eleven newspaper managers, accused of "terrorist organization integration", were also arrested and detained in Madrid. They were subsequently tried in the well-known macrocase 18/98, with harsh prison terms. The following day the workers of Egin published the Basque newspaper Información, which lasted until the creation of Gara. And, among other things, a major demonstration in Donostia-San Sebastian has condemned the closure of the Gipuzkoan capital.

It was not credible, but it was happening, a small indicator of this was this sentence of the report I wrote in July 1998 on the occasion of the closure: “The question comes in itself: And then what? Should HB be banned, for example? Unimaginable, but who could imagine that the Pamplona Patient was going to close a few hours beyond me?” It wasn't a wizard, we couldn't guess the future, but there were some suspicions.

The persecution had been a deadly
blow to Egin for a long time, but before the newspaper had been subjected to multiple state attacks: In 1979, ETA’s then-director, Mirentxu Purroy, was arrested for publishing an ETA statement. Between 1982 and 1992, the director José Felix Azurmendi made fourteen times available to the courts for several articles published in the newspaper, and between 1980 and 1982 the authorities kidnapped several numbers.

However, one of the hardest years was his last spases and this time the attacks came closer. In December 1993, the Ertzaintza registered the headquarters of Egin at the instigation of the Interior Minister of the Basque Government, Juan Mari Atutxa, and in August 1994 arrested Pepe Rei, head of the research department. The lehendakari of the Basque Government, José Antonio Ardanza, was also in favour of closing the newspaper, claiming that doing so would be “a democratic hygiene”. In 1996, Atutxa himself dedicated the following flower to the journalist: “Every morning, a small amosal pump of about 50 grams bursts.”
Lizarra-Garazi window

In the first decade of the 1990s, there were very hard times in Basque society, in a context of confrontation between the promoters of the Ajuria Enea Pact and the social sectors of the Abertzale left, including the blue ribbon that emerged to reject the kidnappings of ETA. Likewise, ETA made public at that time the well-known policy of “spreading suffering”. The Basque conflict was in the red. The persecution of the State was becoming ever closer and, without formulating it this way, it was already the beginning of the conception of “everything is ETA”. The first major warning was in 1997, when HB’s leadership was imprisoned for using an ETA statement during the election campaign.

In 1998 there was the second major blow, the closure of Egin. The President of the Spanish Government, José María Aznar, on 23 July from Turkey immediately clarified where the political impetus came from: “Did anyone think we wouldn’t dare?” A year later, a few days after ETA declared the ceasefire, Moncloa announced in a statement that it "opened contacts with ENAM." Egin's closure
already had all these preliminary ones, but at the same time it was about to open a big window of hope: In September 1998, numerous Basque political, trade union and social forces signed the Lizarra-Garazi Pact. The base was HB and PNV, but, except for the PSE and pp forces, almost all the others signed the agreement. As you know, this path of peace failed and the conflict re-emerged with force. It was a tough, confusing and hopeful time. Professor of the UPV/EHU Iñaki Lasagabaster stated in an interview in the publication Las Claves de la Futuro that ARGIA will publish at the end of July, that the State began to design the current authoritarian tendencies and that puts the pp leader at the center of that design.

Eleven egin managers were sentenced to harsh prison terms: for example, director Javier Salutregi, 12 years old, and deputy director Teresa Toda, 10 years old. In 2009, the Spanish Supreme Court stated that the closure of egin was unfair and halved prison sentences. The Supreme’s decision, however, has not affected Gara’s debt. During all these years, his echo “…that we would not dare to dare?” has entered the last court.

Three million euros in instalments in
2008 the Constitutional Court did not accept the appeal of Gara and the Spanish Social Security gave continuity to the path of debt cancellation, but the settlement did not materialize until 2017. The judge then said: “Or pay or close.” Gara appealed the judgment, but did not thrive and the order was executed in autumn 2018. Almost 200 jobs were at risk, according to the same sources. Finally, an agreement was reached with Social Security and the debt of EUR 3 million will have to be paid on time: the first settlement was made with the agreement, the second, the third in October and the remaining three in the following six months will be paid at the end of July.

Where do you get it from? Just as in its creation they succeeded in making shareholders to 10,000 people in Gara, the newspaper is now propelling a campaign to make subscriptions to 10,000 people and it has already been announced that they have won 7,000 subscriptions. “The goal is that, at least in two and a half years, these subscribers pay 12.5 euros a month,” says Asier Iñigo, Gara’s communications and marketing manager, adding that “we not only want money, but we want to connect with the project, strengthen the community.” In addition to a small individual army, there are 180 teams in all of Euskal Herria who make subscriptions.

In addition, many artists from Euskal Herria have offered their creations to support the campaign and on 9 June a great concert was held in Illunbe Square in Donostia, with over 30 groups and thousands of spectators in eleven hours. Among other initiatives, more than 800 journalists have signed a manifesto against this polio that Gara is suffering, and they are also clear about it: “Egin was illegalized in 1998, as subsequently recognized by the Supreme Court. We consider it a nonsense to attribute to Gara the debt he now had to the Social Security and unjustly punish this media and its workers.” It was closed, ETA disappeared, but the shadow of “ETA is everything” is still alive.