A thousand demonstrators participated Saturday morning in an action of “blocking” of the Basque Country in order to demand the release of Basque prisoners, ex-members of ETA, indicated the prefect of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Eric Spitz, on France Bleu Pays Basque. The Bake Bidea association and the Artisans de la paix movement, behind this action, put forward the figure of 1,700 people mobilized.
17 demonstrators were taken into custody after the blockades, six on Saturday morning and eleven on Saturday afternoon, for “an offense of obstruction of the public highway“, indicates the parquet floor of Bayonne to France Bleu Pays Basque.
Six demonstrators burst onto the airport tarmac around 8:30 a.m., before being quickly exfiltrated by the police, indicates France Bleu, which adds that others were fined for having defied the ban near the train station. Biarritz, while some gather in front of the town hall of Bayonne. The demonstrators announced that they had blocked the A63 motorway between Bayonne North and Bayonne South towards Spain this Saturday, reports France Bleu Pays basque, despite the ban on demonstrations issued on Friday by the Pyrénées-Atlantiques prefecture.
Blockage in the Basque Country: the A63 cut off at Bayonne towards Spain
➡️ https://t.co/pLv9MghoxC pic.twitter.com/SZ3fQRNDOH– France Blue Basque Country (@Bleu_Basque) July 23, 2022
Five people chained themselves to the railway track between Boucau and Bayonne, blocking rail traffic and causing major delays at Bayonne station. According to the SNCF, shortly before 12 p.m., traffic was interrupted between Tyrosse and Bayonne. France Bleu adds that a gendarmerie operation was underway at midday to dislodge the protesters.
Other groups managed to block the D810 bridge between Bidart and Guétary and several other roads were blocked this morning: around 400 people blocked the Avenue du Maréchal Soult in Bayonne as well as the road linking Hendaye to Behobie. . Diversions are in place according to France Bleu, which specifies that the prefect refuses to dislodge them despite the ban in force, so as not to “to create a disturbance to public order”.
Blocking of the road in Bayonne in the middle of the avenue du Maréchal Soult in Bayonne as part of the Basque Country blocking day by the association @BakeBidea pic.twitter.com/5wzwmGgEx8
– France Blue Basque Country (@Bleu_Basque) July 23, 2022
Significant police measures are in place, particularly at the station and at Biarritz airport, where filtering is carried out to prevent demonstrators from entering the terminal. On its website, the airport invites users to arrive even earlier than usual to compensate for the delays caused. “There will be no buses and very few taxis”specifies the airport on its website.
Ten blocking points were targeted and communicated in advance by the demonstrators before the prefecture’s ban, including the town hall of Bayonne, the stations of Biarritz and Mauléon, as well as the covered market of Espelette or the car park of Bidart beach.
In Biarritz, the D810 road between the station and the airport is blocked by protesters @Artisans_Peace
Find all the blocking points https://t.co/6TLGDiseIk pic.twitter.com/mpLpvDxMXI
– France Blue Basque Country (@Bleu_Basque) July 23, 2022
These blocks aim to demand the conditional release of Ion Parot and Jakes Esnal, former members of ETA sentenced in 1997 to life imprisonment with other members of a commando group responsible in particular for the attack on the garrison of Zaragoza in 1987, which left eleven dead, including six children. They have been incarcerated in France for 32 years.