1. The political authorities have repeatedly said that the Guggenheim Urdaibai project will be the lungs of Busturialdea. The people who live in this region do not have detailed information about the plan, although we have the right to have it. We also want to have the opportunity to analyze the project in depth and express our point of view, and we want the authorities to take into account our opinion. That is why we demand that there should be a participatory process based on transparent and truthful information.

2.  At the moment, we only know some parts of the project which have been presented separately by the different administrations. These partial plans do not comply with the law, and have been developed without informing the citizens. Some town councils in the area, such as that of Murueta, has initiated a process of changing the General Urban Plans to try to reclassify the use of the shipyard land and thus make the museum legal. The Guggenheim Urdaibai Stop (GUS) Platform has collected 7,175 signatures in support of the allegations against this change.

Another of the changes made, which arbitrarily and with legal loopholes tries to modify the current levels of protection of the reserve, is the reduction of coastal protection from 100 to 20 meters by Costas, the Spanish government authority entrusted with protecting the Coast. This change is currently being litigated in the Litigation-Administrative Chamber of the National Court by our legal team.

3. We have also gone directly to the origin of this project, and we have sent a letter to the Guggenheim Foundation in the United States, signed by 22 neighbors of the Busturialdea region. In this letter, we have conveyed to them the feelings and concerns caused  by the information we are receiving, mainly through the media.

To carry out this project it is necessary to usurp land in the Urdaibai estuary. In the letter addressed to the Guggenheim Foundation we have expressed our opposition to this action, and have requested that the project be abandoned permanently.

On the other hand, in the face of the lack of respect shown to the only Biosphere Reserve in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, we have asked them if they would be willing to do such a project in their own country, in the national parks of Yosemite or Yellowstone of the United States. The letter was sent in February; we have not received a reply, nor do we expect one.

4. While the political authorities remain silent,  the media is fancifully publishing one news story after another about the project.

Faced with what is happening, the community movement Guggenheim Urdaibai STOP is giving talks, both in the towns in the area of the Biosphere Reserve, and in other towns and cities throughout the Basque Country, with the aim of disseminating all the information that we are getting from the media and other sources. In these meetings we listen to the concerns of our neighbors, and try to clarify the doubts that have gradually arisen about the implications of the project. That work shouldn`t have to be done by us but by our political representatives; but since they are not fulfilling their basic obligations it is us, the citizens, who have had to take on this responsibility ourselves.

5. We request that the Foral Provincial Council of Bizkaia, the Basque Government and the Guggenheim Foundation withdraw definitively the Guggenheim Urdaibai project.

a- Urging the Bizkaia Provincial Council, the Basque Government, and the Guggenheim Foundation to permanently abandon the Guggenheim Urdaibai project.

b.- We also request them to commit to elaborating a serious socio-economic plan for the recovery of the region, with a real diagnosis and within the framework of the Biosphere Reserve, prioritizing citizens and the environment. In addition, we ask that they move away from tax models to approach another model of governance, with the town councils as protagonists, together with other interested parties and encouraging public participation.

6. As for the social networks, we are collecting signatures against the project on an Internet website, and you can also find us on Instagram and Facebook, from where we try to reach a larger number of people.

As well as that, we have also set up  a community movement, so that the people of Busturialdea can give a united answer to the political authorities. Here we are!

7.  The last municipal elections resulted in a substantial change in Busturialdea, a change that has been reinforced in a significant way in the last elections to the Basque Parliament, in which the party that is supporting the construction of the museum has lost a significant loss of votes, 892 votes to be precise, with negative results in almost all the towns of the region. In the face of the current political situation, we ask that the project be put on the table again, but the whole project, not divided into several partial plans, as has been done to facilitate its approval.

We demand the paralysis of the illegal activity of Murueta Shipyards, that public money not be given  to this project and that a process of reflection be initiated, starting from scratch again.

We must seriously analyze the needs of our region. We need a socio-economic plan that firmly adjusts to the needs of the future, a plan that puts the environment and the citizens first.

8. Finally, we demand that the name of the municipality of Gernika be treated with due respect. In this environment, terrible events and situations have happened here, which have led to Gernika becoming known throughout the world. We cannot allow the name of the town of Gernika to be associated with a franchise. Don`t insult us this way!