Madrid PP leaders back protest against Euro ruling on ETA prisoners

The Popular Party (PP) government has been working behind the scenes for weeks to ameliorate the anticipated impact of the European Court of Human Rights’ decision to strike down the so-called “Parot doctrine,” which led to the release of ETA assassin Inés del Río from prison on Tuesday. The party strategy is to tread carefully around the rejection of victims’ associations of the Strasbourg ruling – and their calls for Spain to ignore it – while also preparing for probable moments of high tension coinciding with the release of ETA inmates and acts of homage laid on for terrorists in the Basque Country.

The announcement of a protest march by the Association of Terrorism Victims (AVT) on Sunday in Madrid poses several problems for the PP leadership, not least the decision by its highest-ranking members from the capital to attend. Regional premier Ignacio González, his predecessor and party leader in the region, Esperanza Aguirre, and Mayor Ana Botella, the wife of former Prime Minister José María Aznar, have all confirmed their presence on Sunday.

Ignacio González, Esperanza Aguirre and Ana Botella will all attend

It remains to be seen what transpires from a meeting of the conservative party’s hierarchy on Wednesday afternoon with victims’ associations to clarify the government’s position on the protest. So far, party sources say, the government is always on the side of the victims, but it cannot be represented at a protest that “goes against the law.”

The ECHR ruling strikes down the judicial doctrine adopted by Spanish courts under which reductions in sentence were applied to the entire total of years to which the criminal was condemned (over 3,800 in the case of Inés del Río), rather than from the 30-year mandatory limit in force at the time many ETA terrorists were convicted. The effect was to keep prisoners in jail for 30 years, instead of allowing those with multiple counts of murder to their name free at an earlier stage.

The AVT march coincides with a demonstration by the healthcare sector, which has taken to the streets several times this year to protest against cutbacks and a privatization plan of hospitals in the Madrid region. Both are scheduled to take place in the capital’s Colón square, the scene of emblematic protests against the former Socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero over his attempt to negotiate with ETA.

What the PP fears the most is that the demonstrations may turn against the central government, with many of the attendees at AVT and the so-called “White Tide” public health system marches being PP voters and card-carriers.

“The [Strasbourg] sentence has prompted disgust toward the PP but we have to abide by it,” noted party secretary general María Dolores de Cospedal.