They were about 15,000, according to the organizers, 9,000, according to the police, and paraded quietly between Hendaye and Irun. A few kilometers from Biarritz, where seven heads of state met, anti-capitalist and anti-globalization demonstrators staged a "counter-G7" on Saturday. For Aurélie Trouvé, spokesperson for these activists, this initiative was addressed to "the whole population to say that there is hope".
A "counter-summit anchored in the territory"
"We can, we must build alternatives to ultra-liberal policies," she claims at the microphone of Europe 1. "Trump, Macron, Trudeau and the others all carry out this same policy in the service of the most rich and multinationals. " According to the activist, the counter-summit bears the opposite "values of solidarity, response to the ecological urgency, respect for human rights and the end of relations of domination."
Aurélie Trouvé denounces a "G7 cut off from the local population, above ground", with "7 heads of state of rich countries" who "lock themselves in their ivory tower, at the Palace Hotel in Biarritz". "We are not addressing [them] because we consider that this G7 is illegitimate," she storms. "We have achieved a counter-summit rooted in the territory, with the Basque movements, which is open, plural, demanding and determined."