This evening at Bilbao, citizens filled and refilled Autonomia street (one of the largest streets of Bilbao) again.
Jon Garai of Egin Dezagun Bidea (Let Us Make the Path),ad hoc platform that gathered at least 15,000 signatures to call for this demonstration, declared in his speech:
We will not accept more excuses. There can be no more delays. Beginning tomorrow the Basque Society does not expect any other scenario than the disappearance of the cruel exception measures applied to Basque prisoners, closing that way a grey period, in order to open the door to a new time that brings us to a situation of freedom and rights for all, a situation of definite peace without prisoner nor exiles.
At this time the end of the demonstration had not yet began walking, and half the city cried Euskal Presoak Etxera!: Basque Prisoners Back Home!
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| Relatives of Basque prisoners opened the march |
The demonstration was opened by a bloc of relatives of the prisoners carrying five oil lamps (icon taken from Picasso's Guernica painting representing the hope of reunion), followed by many political and social leaders, not just Basque but also from Ireland and Catalonia, Galicia and many other corners of SW Europe, all the preceded by a banner which read:
Eskubide guztiekin euskal presoak Euskal Herrira
Repatriate all Basque Prisoners
(The first sentence actually reads in Basque: Basque prisoners back to the Basque Country with full rights).
The speech of Garai, who also demanded that the Basque majority who demands the return of prisoners and exiles is heard and fulfilled, was followed by another by Inés Osinaga, who repeated the demand and suggested that it is a necessary step to open the doors fully to the final resolution of the [Basque-Spanish] conflict.
Bilbao was boiling since noon with people arrived from all the Basque Country and beyond for this demonstration, with a number of lesser protests and marches happening under its shadow.
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| Moment when the demo's head arrived to Zabalburu Plaza, meeting even more people who were waiting there to join half way to the end |
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| International solidarity |
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| More internationalists, these from Madrid and Andalusia |
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| The unbearable levity of state violence: police vans appeared irrelevant in the midst of such multitude |
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| Final discourse at the Town Hall |
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| Fermin Muguruza and Sorkun performed a couple of songs |
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