At a meeting held in late March, approximately 25 local stakeholders —including political groups, environmental collectives, neighborhood representatives, and environmental experts— agreed to work in a coordinated manner. The goal is to halt the route proposed by ETS, which would involve more than 40 daily freight trains passing through the center of the municipality.
This significant social movement has emerged in a very short time, barely two weeks. For this reason, the mayor of the municipality wanted to express gratitude to the attendees, highlighting the value of their involvement. Mayor Maite Ibarra emphasized that without citizen momentum, it will be “very difficult” to stop such a large-scale project, and considers this involvement “the best guarantee” before higher institutions.
“"It is very important to see how we unite in defense of our town."
To strengthen the administrative battle, the City Council has prepared an objection form that citizens can download and complete. Once filled out, it must be submitted to the Citizen Attention Service (SAC) of the Consistory before April 24, with the recommendation to do so “as soon as possible to avoid accumulations in the last days”.
This show of force includes two important events next week to continue progress and exert pressure. The first will be on Wednesday, April 15, with an open meeting at 7:30 PM in the Arrigorriaga sports center. There, the project's status will be updated, general information will be provided, submitted objections will be explained, and next steps will be decided.
The second is the demonstration called for Sunday, April 19, which will start at 1:00 PM from the City Hall square. The Consistory and stakeholders call on citizens “to actively participate to defend the future of Arrigorriaga and show their rejection of the current route”.
