PP official claims mortgage activists support pro-ETA groups

The central government’s delegate in Madrid came under heavy fire on Monday after she suggested that members of the Mortgage Victims Platform (PAH) had supported figures connected to terrorist group ETA.

Specifically, Cristina Cifuentes referred to PAH member Ada Colau, whom she linked to radical Basque nationalist parties.

“Mrs Colau and other people in that platform have shown their support on more than one occasion for Bildu, Sortu and other groups, which, as I see it, have a lot to do with those connected to ETA,” Cifuentes said in an interview with state broadcaster RNE.

Colau immediately reacted, saying that she has not ruled out filing a lawsuit against the Popular Party (PP) official. She said that PAH was “an independent, apolitical and plural” organization. “This is immoral, and we are not ruling out taking legal action for defamation and creating a climate of confusion and tension.”

Cifuentes’ comments come after some members of PAH — a group of citizens who are fighting to keep people from being kicked out of their homes for mortgage non-payment — reportedly harassed a number of PP deputies in Catalonia.

Carmen Maniega, a PP lawmaker from Asturias, filed a police complaint after she was “followed” by PAH members in Oviedo.

For its part, the United Left (IU) coalition said that the PP is using the excuse to “criminalize social movements.”