Madrid outraged at Basque far-left refusal to call ETA group ‘terrorist’

7 months ago 29

The far-left separatist party EH-Bildu, favourite to win the Basque elections next Sunday, and the ruling socialist party PSOE (S&D) clashed on Tuesday after the former refused to describe the now defunct Basque group ETA as “terrorist”.

Government spokeswoman Pilar Alegría (PSOE) said it was “cowardly” and “utter contempt” for the victims and for Basque and Spanish society not to admit that ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, Basque Country and Freedom, in Basque) was a terrorist group that caused the country a lot of pain with its attacks in the 1980s.

Pello Otxandiano, EH Bildu’s candidate for head of the Basque regional government, said in an interview broadcast on Cadena SER radio on Monday night that ETA was an “armed group”.

Otxandiano also said that it depends on “different points of view” whether or not the now-defunct group can be considered terrorist or not.

Founded in 2012, EH Bildu is a coalition of pro-independence and nationalist Basque parties with six representatives in the Spanish parliament, led by former ETA member Arnaldo Otegi.

According to the latest polls, EH-Bildu, which in recent years has gained especially strong support among young voters, would be the winner of next Sunday’s elections.

However, analysts say it is highly likely that the radical separatist party will not govern and that a coalition between the moderate pro-independence Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and the Basque Socialist Party (PSOE-EE) will again be formed.

“Unfortunately, in this country, all Spaniards know very well that ETA was a terrorist group”, the government spokeswoman stressed, adding that the government does not share “at all” the position of EH Bildu.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska (PSOE) also expressed his indignation at Otxandiano’s words: “It is truly contempt for the victims of terrorism, and it is time for the nationalist left (Basque separatists) to admit ETA’s terrorism, condemn ETA’s terrorism and show their most intimate, deepest and most real solidarity with the victims of terrorism”.

In May 2023, Spain commemorated five years of the formal end of ETA. The group killed around 840 people in its 60 years of terror. (Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)