A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #351 - BASQUE COUNTRY: MARIENIA IN CAMBO, AGAINST CONCRETE, PLOWING, AND PLANTING (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The Basque Country is highly sought after by developers, real estate 
agencies, and the very wealthy, who are taking advantage of the 
skyrocketing price per square meter of land to invest and cash in. The 
context is tense: urbanization is swallowing up and artificializing 
land, rental prices are skyrocketing, and the number of second homes is 
increasing. When real estate projects are being developed on 
agricultural land, associations and collectives emerge to lead the fight 
and create a strong dynamic. The defenders of the land in Marienia are 
cultivating resistance...
This long-term struggle was already a reality in 2014.
Since then, a housing development project in Marienia, a rich land near 
Cambo, has been the subject of intense controversy. The attempt to 
artificialize the 3.7 hectares of this meadow to build a 94-unit 
residential complex, with the approval of the municipal majority, is 
facing a broad mobilization to preserve this land and defend its 
nutritional value.
The struggle has been and is being waged on the legal front, but above 
all, it seeks to create a balance of power through collective action. 
Because the enemy is powerful-the multinational Bouygues Immobilier-it 
has allies among the notables, and it is determined to carry out its 
project.
In 2019, the Cambo town hall classified Marienia as a buildable zone as 
part of the revision of its Local Urban Plan (PLU), provoking an outcry 
from associations. A victory was achieved when part of this land was 
reverted to "natural" status. Two years later, Bouygues Immobilier and 
the Housing Office 64 filed a building permit for these plots. Without 
taking into account the arguments of the opponents (2), the courts had 
given the green light to the two organizations and the Bordeaux 
Administrative Court of Appeal confirmed it in September 2024. An appeal 
in cassation was filed last year by two associations, Cade and 
Lurzaindia. Furthermore, in order to protect agricultural land by 
restoring Marienia's status as arable land, opponents hope that the 
balance of power that has been established will exert sufficient 
pressure on the elected representatives of the CAPB (Basque Country 
Urban Community) to ensure that Cambo's PLU is put back up for debate at 
a plenary assembly, as promised... in December 2024, but still not 
included on the agenda...
In addition to legal proceedings, the numerous initiatives taken over 
the past 10 years (demonstrations, direct actions) have met with 
positive response and are generating broad collective momentum among 
many Basque Country residents who are sensitive to the need to defend 
sustainable agriculture and affordable housing. Some of these actions 
have met with severe police and judicial repression, as is the case 
everywhere with local and land defense struggles: searches, arrests, 
attempts to collect DNA samples, intimidation, police harassment, 
trials, fines, and more.
On March 12, 2024, four activists from the Ostia network were tried in 
the Bayonne court for participating in an action at the premises of the 
multinational Bouygues in December 2022. They are accused of 
symbolically throwing earth on a model of the Marienia construction 
project. The court imposed heavy penalties of EUR6,700 in damages and 
EUR800 in legal fees. Bouygues appealed and claimed EUR44,000 in 
damages. The decision was handed down on May 15: EUR8,742 in damages and 
EUR2,000 in legal fees. (3)
February 11, 2025: Three activists were prosecuted before the same court 
for alleged "aggravated violence" against the mayor of Cambo (although 
the mayor himself acknowledged that there had been no assault or 
altercation) during a municipal council meeting attended by many 
opponents of the Marienia project, a project strongly supported by the 
mayor, who refuses any dialogue. The trial was postponed until September 9.

...and sow hope
On April 30, activists and farmers plowed half a hectare of the plot 
where Bouygues is seeking to build buildings. And they called for two 
marches to converge on the site on May 17 for a day of popular 
planting... and protests. On that day, the sticks that the 500 
demonstrators had brought were planted at the edge of the field "to seal 
in the ground a collective oath, a symbol of (their) determination and a 
tool for protecting this beloved nourishing land"; in the manner of the 
commitments to struggle at Larzac in 1972 and at Notre-Dame-des-Landes 
in 2018. Then they sowed vegetable crops on the plowed part of the 
field. It was an important day of meeting, demands and celebration.
On this fertile ground, farmland defenders hope to ignite struggles.

Starting crops is a way of resisting and collectively taking over the 
land; it's also a way of responding to the judges who, on appeal, denied 
the agricultural vocation and use of this land, where sheep have always 
grazed. "This land is very nourishing, and since sheep farming alone 
isn't enough to make that happen, we've planted vegetables there."
A call to participate in monitoring the initiative has been launched. 
The objective is clear. Faced with the pressure of a possibly imminent 
start of construction, everything will be done to ensure that the 
Marienia lands retain their agricultural vocation.

May 18 - Basque Country

Notes:

1. See article in Courant Alternatif No. 325, December 2022 - Basque 
Country - "Agricultural Land, Hands Off!"» Against Land and Real Estate 
Speculation - The Case of Marienia in Cambo
2. Opponents of the Marienia project in Cambo are activists from the ELB 
farmers' union (close to the Confederation), opposition elected 
officials at Cambo town hall, CADE (a collective of environmental 
defense associations), members of Lurzaindia (which succeeded the GFA 
Mutuel), and Ostia, a network of activists whose goal is to fight to 
defend the earth's nourishment, against land take and land and real 
estate speculation. The diversity of these organizations, some highly 
committed to legal matters, others advocating direct action, often makes 
it difficult to make consensual collective decisions.
3. Call for solidarity donations on the website helloasso.com (search 
for "marienia-epaiketen-aurrean-elkartasuna").

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4468
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