Urkullu does not invite the King or Sánchez to the "great start" of the Tour with the approval of the PSOE

The Basque Government presided over by Lehendakari Urkullu has not invited the King of Spain Felipe VI, nor President Sánchez nor his Sports Minister Miquel Iceta to the official acts that will be held in the Basque Country on the 29th in the “great start” of the Tour de France. “There are no reasons to invite them, nor not to invite them,” the Minister of Culture and Sports Bingen Zupiria responded laconicly about this decision that leaves the highest authorities of Spain out of the official protocol through which the cycling race will circulate throughout more than 500 kilometers in three stages.

The Basque Government – made up of the PNV and the Basque PSOE – has limited itself to inviting the Government delegate in Euskadi Denis Itxaso, the president of the Basque Parliament and the spokespersons of the parliamentary groups to the events that will take place from the 29th July when the presentation of the teams that will compete in this edition of the Tour de France will take place.

For three days, the Basque Government intends to use the media coverage of the race to highlight the “uniqueness” of the Basque Country under the slogan 'Euskadi Basque Country'. The Basque administrations have already deployed hundreds of ikurriñas along the route and the pro-independence platform Gure Esku Dago has called on its supporters to support this initiative to fill the entire route with ikurriñas. In addition, and to defend the independence of 'Euskal Herria', the pro-sovereignty group will prepare the “biggest ikurriñas ever made”.

After the presentation of the teams, which will be televised through the signal broadcast by EiTB and which, as has been announced, will be held in Basque, the peloton will depart from Bilbao on July 1 with a circular route through all of Vizcaya. The publicity caravan and the cyclists will travel the roads of Álava and Guipúzcoa on Sunday, July 2 and the last stage in Spanish territory will start from Amorebieta (Vizcaya) to finish in the south of France.

The 'Gran Depart' (great exit in French) will allow, as announced by Lehendakari Urkullu, to show “a profoundly European and Europeanist country” referring to the Basque Country. A strategy shared with the PSE-EE that assumes without pronouncing that neither King Felipe VI, nor Sánchez nor Minister Iceta have been invited.

The departure of the Tour will also make it easier for groups such as the Basque police to show their rejection of the management carried out by the Basque Government. Four police unions and a new platform of agents called Ertzainas in struggle put pressure on vice hendakari Josu Erkoreka to accept their requests in the negotiation of a new agreement. Demonstrations and massive concentrations -with up to 4,000 participants in a group of 9,000 agents- have multiplied the political tension.