The paradox of fighting Francoism with the help of those who do not condemn ETA’s terrorism

Instead of having disfigured Mertxe Aizpurua that the legate party of ETA proclaim itself guardian of “the rights and freedoms of all citizens” against “the spaces of fascism in all its forms”, Pedro Sanchez has supported part of his speech on democratic memory.

The Bildu spokesperson has demanded from the president in the Control Session this Wednesday “firm measures” against acts of “fascist exaltation.” And Sánchez, who was not going to miss the opportunity to revive one of your favorite civil war jokershas taken the opportunity to advance that the Government will accelerate the removal of Francoist symbols.

The imposture involved in Aizpurua’s criticism of the “total impunity” with which the “Franco organizations” act is manifest. And rightly so, it has provoked the angry reaction of a large part of the chamber and the PP spokesperson, who has expressed her “disgust” at Sánchez’s connivance with the Bildutarra.

Because Aizpurua is the spokesperson for a party that (unlike the PP with respect to Francoism) has never expressly condemned ETA crimes nor has he renounced his terrorist past. And despite this, he not only continues to act in Spanish political life with impunity, but with increasing prominence.

But it is even more bloody that the person who made this call for an “anti-fascist commitment” against the exaltation of Francoism is Mertxe Aizpurua herself, sentenced to a year in prison in 1984 for advocating terrorism.

The same Aizpurua who directed the newspaper during ETA’s leading years do itin which terrorists published their editorials and threatened their victims with death. That he harangued the “necessary gudaris.” And who interviewed for the newspaper We are to two hooded members of the band’s leadership.

¿With what authority do Abertzales execrate the “exaltation” of political violence?when in the Basque Country and Navarra hundreds of acts of homage to ETA prisoners continue to take place in public spaces, many of them officially facilitated by the town councils governed by Bildu?

What credibility does the spokesperson for a coalition made up of Sortu, successor to the banned Batasuna, have when it comes to demanding the ban on political parties?

The same one that the executors of the gunmen had when they declared against the “arms race” and the war during the debate on the increase in Defense spending last April.

The same one they have when they denounce the “genocide” of Israel those who share the ideology of those who committed a mass slaughter to purge the Basque Country of anyone who abhorred its “armed struggle.”

The same as the one sentenced to six years in prison for belonging to an armed gang. Arnaldo Otegi by becoming an ambassador of pacifism and the defense of human rights.

Sánchez has supported Aizpurua’s demand to “apply the anti-fascist commitment to prevent ultras from accessing the Government.”

But the access of nationalist radicalism to the governability of the State does not seem to cause him any problem, whom, despite his declared anti-constitutional creed, he has turned into the most faithful partner of his investiture majority.

The concurrence between the stories of the PSOE and Bildu To combat the obstacles of Franco’s regime, it offers the latest installment of the aberrant normalization policy that this Government has followed with the Basque independentists.

Although it is not strictly new, given that Bildu already had a leading role in the drafting of the Democratic Memory Law of 2022, which was approved thanks to an agreement with the PSOE to extend the temporal scope of human rights violations until the first year of the government of Felipe González. And thus include certain ETA militants among those liable for compensation for their defense of “democratic values.”

It is a shamelessness that a party that has wanted to erase the most recent memory of the victims of terrorism In the Basque Country, memory dictates the victims of the dictatorship. But it is unacceptable that Sánchez has not disavowed the former ETA spokesperson.

On the contrary, Maria Jesus Montero He has expanded in the defense of Aizpurua asking for “respect for democracy”

And it is true that Bildu’s deputies have also been “legitimately elected.” But that is compatible with the application by the rest of the parliamentary forces of a non-negotiable cordon sanitaire. Precisely the one that Pedro Sánchez has raised for them.