Tens of thousands of people demonstrated this Saturday in the streets of Bilbao, called by EH Bildu, to demand the Basque nation. At the meeting, its general coordinator, Arnaldo Otegi, assured that the sovereigntist coalition has come to “lead this country to freedom” and has warned that the legislature in the State will be marked by the “national recognition of Euskal Herria.” .
Under the motto ‘under the motto ‘Nazioa Gara (We are a nation)’, the mobilization, in which 28,000 people would have taken part according to municipal sources, started after 5:40 p.m. from the vicinity of the Plaza de la Casilla to end in the Plaza Zabalburu, where the leader of the sovereigntist coalition, Arnaldo Otegi, read a statement amidst shouts in favor of independence and the return of ETA prisoners “home.”
The march was led by a banner carried by Otegi himself, Mertxe Aizpurua, Nerea Kortajarena, Maddalen Iriarte, Pernando Barrena, Iker Casanova, Pello Otxandiano, Ainize Gastaka, Joseba Asiron, Laura Aznal, Gorka Elejabarrieta, Nadia Nemeh and Rocío Vitero. Along with them, it was also possible to see the leaders of Sortu and Eusko Alkartasuna, Arkaitz Rodríguez and Eba Blanco, respectively.
The demonstration started with applause and representatives from Sinn Féin, ERC, BNG, CUP, Compromis, Mes Per Menorca, Andecha Astur, FPLP of Palestine, the Polisario Front and KNK of Kurdistan also took part. Among others, the senators from Esquerra Republicana, Sara Bailac and Josep Maria Reniu, and the deputy in the Catalan Parliament Adrià Guevara were present.
The mobilization arrived at around 6:00 p.m. at Plaza Zabalburu, from where the participants sang the ‘Txoriak txori’ as a symbolic way to claim that “ours is a nation.”
In his speech, Arnaldo Otegi had a memory for the relatives of the ETA prisoners, as well as for the situation in the Middle East. In this sense, and after placing a Palestinian handkerchief on the lectern, he denounced “the strategy of genocide” of the State of Israel and warned that “there is no right to self-defense that kills thousands of children.”
“That goes against international law, all the rules. The failure to comply with all United Nations resolutions must end. Palestine must have its own State,” he emphasized.
Likewise, he has considered that we are “living in an important, crucial historical context”, in which “the battle that we have been raising for decades between the old regime of ’78 and the freedom and equality of peoples is being played out.”
In this sense, he pointed out that “a window of opportunity has opened for the second time in the State.” “We have done it because we supported the first and we have done it out of responsibility. EH Bildu has not played or speculated with its position because, when the fascists knock on the door, there is no other priority than stopping them, there are no high-speed trains, There are no other things, the first priority is to protect people, protect workers, protect women, protect nations,” he defended.
He has also denounced the “fascist offensive” in which “no one is missing: soldiers, civil guards, police, judges, media, who have gathered again today in Cibeles to try to stop what is already unstoppable, which It is the freedom of the people and the equality of the people.” According to him, the “tens of thousands of anti-fascist people” who have demonstrated in Bilbao tell them that “they are not going to stop us.”
In this context, he also remembered the members of Herri Batasuna Santi Brouard and Josu Muguruza, murdered in 1984 and 1989, and pointed out that they were murdered by “the same people who today try to oppose this country moving towards a democratic model.” . “To those who murdered them we say again that here we are, standing, with the wishes and desires of Santi and Josu,” he added.
On the other hand, he stated that the legislature “will be marked by the debate on plurinationality and by the national recognition of Euskal Herria, among other peoples of the Spanish State.” A debate that, according to him, “is what democratizes the State.”
In this way, he has indicated that “the next stage” involves opening “with great calm, little noise and a lot of work, a debate that definitively addresses the national problems in the State.” “And we are going to do it, calmly, with ambition, with demand and with a lot of responsibility,” he maintained.
As he has indicated, “the old defenders of the regime fear” this “trip” while EH Bildu sees, on the contrary, “an opportunity.” “You have to have not many principles but they have to be solid. Above all the principles there is one that EH Bildu will always defend, first the nation and then the party,” he added.
Finally, he stressed that neither the present nor the future of Euskadi can be understood without EH Bildu. “EH Bildu has come to stay and take this country where it deserves to be: to freedom and equality. EH Bildu is the future,” she remarked.
