Basque PP accuses Bildu of legitimizing ETA killings in homage

Basque political grouping Bildu on Sunday staged a memorial in San Sebastián as the city mayor, Juan Karlos Izagirre, called on fellow citizens to join an act in “remembrance of all the victims of the conflict.” This would clearly include those killed and injured by terrorist group ETA, but Bildu representative Izagirre did not mention them directly.

The leader of the pro-independence abertzale party staged the event at the city’s port 24 hours before an official homage planned Monday by the San Sebastián City Hall’s Special Commission for Human Rights to mark International Human Rights Day.

The regional Popular Party (PP) has placed conditions on its presence at Monday’s memorial. Its leader, Antonio Basagoiti, said that his party would only attend “if it is made clear that it is only for the victims of terrorism.” He added another condition: that Izagirre “should play no role” in Monday’s ceremony. “He cannot applaud ETA prisoners on Sunday and on Monday attempt to show remorse for its victims.”

The regional PP leader said that “nobody sensible” should have attended Bildu’s act on Sunday, which he said sent out a message that Bildu felt “sadness” over the victims of ETA but that they “had been killed legitimately.”

One of the first initiatives of the PP, Socialist and Basque Nationalist Party opposition after the 2011 elections in which Bildu took power in San Sebastián was to seek an institutional declaration condemning ETA’s crimes, something which Bildu refused.