One of the most massive demonstrations in recent years in Bilbao has denounced “a judicial offensive against Basque,” censoring the meaning of several rulings that in recent months have annulled laws aimed at promoting the language or public employment contests in Euskadi and Navarra in which knowledge of this language was required. The march has been called by Kontseilua, the association of entities that work for Basque, and has had the support and participation of institutions such as the Basque Parliament, provincial councils and city councils; the PNV, EH Bildu, Geroa Bai and Sumar parties; and the main Basque unions, led by ELA and LAB.
The march was headed by a banner with the slogan Frente a la offensiva, con el euskera (In front of the attack, one with the Basques, one with the Basques), the participants marched sporadically chanting slogans like "No a los ataques al euskera", " In the Basque Country in Basque" or "Here we are in favor of the Basque".
The demonstration has been massive and has occupied the entire Gran Via of Bilbao: when the header reached the end of this street, the Plaza Circular, there were still people who were standing at the beginning.
The general secretary of Euskalgintzaren Kontseilua, Idurre Eskisabel, has criticized that the "judicial offensive" disables instruments to make policies for the normalization of Basque and goes against the equality of co-official languages.
Among the institutional officials who have participated are the president of Parliament, Bakartxo Tejeria; the president of the Parliament of Navarra, Unai Hualde; the general deputies of Álava and Gipuzkoa, Ramiro González and Eider Mendoza; the mayors of Bilbao and San Sebastián, Juan Mari Aburto and Eneko Goia; or the PNV spokesperson in Madrid, Aitor Esteban.
The Basque Government has not sent any representative to the march, since it does not officially participate in demonstrations, although the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, and councilors of the PNV have criticized these sentences and the actions of the judiciary on this issue.
