Bilbao City Council and Basque Government, in Ibaigane

On the occasion of the traditional reception that the Athletic Club offers to Bilbao City Council and the Basque Government during Aste Nagusia, the mayor, Juan Mari Aburto, accompanied by a good part of the town councillors, and a representation of the Basque Government headed by Josu Erkoreka, Pedro Aspiazu and Nekane Murga, have been received in Ibaigane by the president of the Athletic Club, Aitor Elizegi, the directors Jon Ander De las Fuentes, Fernando San José, Aitor Bernardo, María Tato, Jorge Gómez, Óscar Beristain, Itziar Villamandos, Goyo Arbizu, Joana Martínez and Tomás Ondarra, as well as the president of the Foundation, Juan Carlos Ercoreca, and our ambassadors and red-and-white legends, Iribar and Argoitia.

Gathered in the atrium of the palace, already dressed in the festivities scarf around their necks, Aitor Elizegi thanked them for their attendance on these important dates. First of all, to the Town Hall, ‘you are at home’, stressing the commitment of this Board of Directors: ‘The bet for Bilbao must be non-negotiable and together we can achieve it because the values mark the way‘. The mayor, Juan Mari Aburto, has joined this message of unity and has stressed ‘that this act in Ibaigane, very special and important, is perhaps the only one in which we all meet‘. ‘Athletic cannot be understood without Bilbao and Bilbao would not be understood without Athletic‘. Finally, both the president and the mayor have coincided in the dream of ‘someday descending on that estuary, as Marijaia does, but with the gabarra‘.

Later, on behalf of the Basque Government, Josu Erkoreka, in what is the first political act of this new academic year, highlighted the harmony between the country’s first two institutions: the Government, as a political institution, and Athletic, as a sports institution: ‘We are two entities with a long history and great challenges ahead. Hopefully, the Basque Government will start the course as Athletic has started‘.