Tags signed “OB-tarrak” (Ondarearen Batasuna, The heritage union) were discovered on five real estate agencies and a detached house in Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle. Six complaints were filed and the gendarmerie opened an investigation to find the authors of these messages registered overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. The messages are linked to the real estate crisis that is raging on the Basque coast, while Saint-Pée is not one of the 24 municipalities considered as a zone in tension. The mayor, Dominique Idiart, says he is aware of the seriousness of the situation, but recalls that threats can in no way be answers.
“Painting today – bombs tomorrow”, is the message found on its storefront by Frédéric Diana, director of the Artis Immobilier agency, already the target of tags. “We are quite shocked by the violence of the message”he laments. “People need to understand that the agent is not there to drive up real estate prices, that’s not his goal. But the region is attractive. We sell a product, there is an offer and demand. You can’t fight that, unless you close up shop and put ten people out of work. But tomorrow it will be another middleman. And I think it would be a digital middleman, which would be even worse on the market. market for customers. The director of the agency says he is in favor of Saint-Pée being integrated into the zone in tension.
“I have the impression that we oppose people, we oppose real estate agencies and the population, we oppose owners and tenants”deplores Lionel Olaizola, whose agency was also targeted. “I think that today is not necessarily the right speech. We must work together to find a solution to this housing problem. It is not by tagging real estate agencies and pointing the finger at them that ‘we’re going to move on.”