The Aroztegia Development Project, an “Urban Pelotazo”: Real Estate Jackpot

The Baztan is a valley in the Basque Country, more specifically in the province of Navarre. It is composed by 15 villages, the largest of which has 3,000 inhabitants and the smallest 60.

One of these villages is Lekaroz, with around 300 inhabitants. In Lekaroz a luxury hotel was designed more than twenty years ago, which was later transformed into a project with a hotel, a golf course and 230 detached houses. This is the project. Palacio de Arozteguia S.L. is the developer, and its proposal has been embellished with arguments such as job creation, attracting tourism and development. From the outset, the population of Lekaroz opposed the project, as did a large part of the Baztan. Over time, opposition to the project has increased. Among other things, the land is now used for farming. Lekaroz has water problems in the summer and 20 percent of the houses in the valley are empty. Moreover, building all these houses would mean a new village in the valley, with all the necessary infrastructure for second homes. Tourism is already becoming unsustainable, and a luxury hotel would increase it.

History

2003: the company obtains authorization to renovate the palace and build a hotel.
2008: the company tries to process a PSIS (Sectoral Plan of Supramunicipal Incidence). The PSIS is a formula used to carry out works of common interest, such as roads. This method allows them to bypass the local administration, without taking its opinion into account. The Government of Navarre told the company to process it through the Baztan’s Town Hall and that’s when they created the developer Palacio de Arozteguia S.L. At the time, half of the development company was owned by Caixa Galicia, a bank with a history of speculation. Hilton Hotels is also part of the group.
2009: At the time, the Baztan Town Hall was in favor of the project and urban redevelopment: the agricultural land became buildable, from a value of 330,000 euros to 9 million euros. It’s what we usually called an “urban pelotazo.” The project was transformed into 250 houses, a golf course and a luxury hotel. Lekaroz held a referendum and decided that it was not in favor of this reclassification. Despite this, the town council approved it. The “Aroztegia… eta gero zer?” (Aroztegia… Now what?) platform lodged an appeal and succeeded in stopping it, but the sentence wasn’t announced until 2013.
2011: With the elections, the city council changed, and the majority was now against the project. At that point, the Government of Navarre decided to prosecute it as a PSIS, overriding Baztan’s local administration, stripping it of its authority and imposing a project that was not in the general interest of the population.
2013: The courts ratified that the project was illegal, and the company would have to present a new project.
2014: They started processing it as a PSIS and the right-wing Navarrese People’s Union gave the first approval.
2015: They approved the final PSIS, until today. Extended until 2039.
2016: Referendum: The Baztan votes against the project.
2019: The court ruled that the hermitage in the middle of the project does not belong to the company.
2021: Works began without all the authorizations needed to carry out the project. The company started the works without respecting the procedures (public tender, different proposals, etc.). The Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak union lodged an appeal and was successful. The final decision was taken after the protest encampment. The camp lasted 13 days and many people came from all over Basque Country. It was an action of civil disobedience, putting our bodies in front of the machines. There was police harassment at the camp and in Lekaroz. The authorities also imposed fines but returned them. The Compensation Council is made up of the landowners and becomes the responsible party for the project and makes decisions about it. In this case, the company, the Baztan town council and some farmers are part of this council, but the company holds the majority. This is expropriation in disguise.

Judicial Harassment

Several people are being prosecuted at the moment.

Garbiñe Elizegi for saying that the project is a Pelotazo Urbanístico while being mayor: 36,000 euros in damages (we won).
Garbiñe Elizegi as mayor for prevarication. On behalf of the Council and with the approval of the Plenary, she withdrew the City Council from the legal proceedings against an appeal from the platform Aroztegia… eta gero zer? (suspended).
Joseba Otondo as mayor for prevarication in authorizing a protest against the project (cancelled).
Joseba Otondo as mayor for cancelling the hotel’s building permit. He was accused of prevarication (suspended).
7 people for denouncing the urban planning pelotazo: criminal complaint, imprisonment and 50,000 euros (cancelled).
7 people for intimidation and harassment and for being part of an organized criminal group. 56,000 euros bail and 20 years in prison in total: The trial will take place from May 19 to May 23. The company is demanding 43 million euros for the suspension of the project. 50,000 euros (cancelled).

Trial

We deny being an organized criminal group, the only thing we accept is civil disobedience. We only recognize what we have done.
56,000 euros for bail are already raised from many people from the Basque Country.
Their story that there is a hierarchy and that there is an organized criminal group is a lie. They don’t understand that we organize ourselves in assemblies.
The prosecutor asked for a deal, we were willing to make a reasonable deal, but the Palacio de Arozteguia S.L. didn’t want to, and we are going to trial.
The company asked the Government of Navarre and the Government of Spain for 43 million euros in compensation. The argument is that they were left without institutional support in face of the camp, so the project was suspended. If the governments don’t pay, they want to demand this compensation at the expense of the 7 people.
Officers from the Foral Police [the autonomous police force of Navarre that largely replaced the Spanish National Police] and the Guardia Civil will testify in favor of the developer.

Discussion

The camp and the stoppage of work was not done by these 7 people, nor was it organized by them. It was the people who collectively stopped the work. As a result of a collective decision, the people decided to defend themselves against an attack. Everything that was done was done publicly.
They don’t accept this form of organization and have invented a hierarchy to punish the organization of the protest as a criminal group. What they really want to condemn is civil disobedience.
The work is paralyzed; the project is not.
PSIS is underway and must be stopped because the private project is not in the general interest of the population.
At the level of social movements, this process is important because it will set a precedent: they want to criminalize the sovereignty of the people, the popular movement, reaction and defense, disobedience against impositions.
Demonstration on February 1 in Iruñea (Pamplona). Trial from May 19 to May 23.

More Information (in Castilian)

Action Items

The request from the platform the Aroztegiko Elkartasun Komitea (Solidarity Committee) is very simple:

Take a photo of yourself with one of the sentences below written on a piece of cardboard or sheet of paper, in Basque, English, and/or your native language.
Send the photo to [email protected] with your information (your name and where you are from).

The aim is to continuously publish the pictures on a forthcoming website in order to create momentum for the demonstration in February and the trial in May.

The sentences are:

AROZTEGIA GELDITU!
Stop Aroztegia!
LURRAREN DEFENTSAN KRIMINALIZAZIORIK EZ!
No to criminalizing the defense of land!