Regardless of all the political and administrative limitations imposed by the Spanish and French states, Udalbiltza represents the whole of the Basque Country from the moment it was created. Despite its small size, it has become a significant indicator of nation building and the firm will of the Basque Country, and that is why it has had to face all kinds of attacks along the way. We could therefore draw two main conclusions: on the one hand, the strategic importance of the national institution’s work and, on the other hand, the broad social support Udalbiltza enjoys in the Basque Country.
The earliest attacks on Udalbiltza took place even before the constituent assembly was held, in 1999. at the time, the French and Spanish governments issued a call to Basque elected representatives not to attend the said assembly and, in addition to constant harassment in the media, between 1999 and 2003 both states targeted the Basque Declaration of Nationality, the “Xiberoa Garatzen‿ project and Udalbiltza's sources of funding.
In April 2003, Judge Baltasar Garzón launched the cruelest legal-political attack: arrests, people jailed, offices closed, funds for the development project confiscated and astronomical bail payments as preconditions for releasing people from jail.
Throughout 2003 and 2004 the proceedings continued and in September 2004, 11 Basque citizens were summoned to the Audiencia Nacional, as defendants in the “Udalbiltza Case‿. On October 6, Baltasar Garzón notified each of the 21 people involved in the proceedings of the charges against them. Garzón was charging them with “membership of an armed gang‿, for carrying out work consisting in the following:

- Contributing to various Ikastolas (Basque schools), secondary (lycees) and primary schools
- Promoting the procedure to express Basque nationality (EHNA)

- Demanding the right of the oldest people in Europe to take its rightful place among other nations In the EU and the UN (International Conference for the Rights of Peoples)
- Demanding official status for our language in all the Basque Country and contributing to normalise its use in all walks of life (agreements subscribed, among others, with Kontseilua, SEI, Udaleku, Topagunea and the radio production centre Arrosa)
- Organising solidarity in order to aid economically deprived parts of the Basque Country and promoting development activities (“Xiberoa Garatzen‿ project and the Basque Fund for Development and Cohesion)
- Promoting other activities along the same lines: Basque university, Basque curriculum, Basque national sports teams, Basque Centre for Statistics, cultural activities, the Social and Economic Observatory…
The attack suffered by Udalbiltza must be understood in the context of the attacks in recent years against other sections of society involved in nation building (media, the movement for Euskara, political parties and social organisations) In a sense, it was time to move against those exerting the right of the Basque Country to build its own institutional structure.
However, the support Udalbiltza received from numerous political, trade union and social agents was more than satisfactory, it was exemplary.
Based on agreement amongst the agents, the protests held in towns and villages and the numerous expressions of solidarity, Udalbiltza made a very positive assessment of the support it received. In fact, it has all proved two things: firstly, that Udalbiltza is a fundamental tool and, secondly, that there is both the need and the will to create a “democratic barrier‿ to defend everything that has been built in favour of the Basque Country in recent years.