Transition of militants into politicians more controversial in Spain than Ireland

Combining nationalism with a platform of left-wing economic policies and increasing social housing, a young political force that includes former members of a violent paramilitary group increased its seats as it attracted a younger electorate seeking change.

This was not Ireland but the Basque Country. As Spain went to the polls this weekend the backstreets of the city of Bilbao were plastered with the white and turquoise posters of EH Bildu, the left-wing, pro-independence political party.

EH Bildu emerged with 24 per cent of the vote in the Basque Country and just over 17 per cent in neighbouring Navarre, an advance on previous elections as it pulled votes away from other left-wing parties. The results made clear that a right-wing strategy to mobilise conservative voters by evoking the horrors of past violence had failed.

The legacy of Eta, the paramilitary group that fought for Basque independence with a campaign of assassinations and bombings from 1968 until it laid down its arms in 2011, hung over the election campaign.

“People think ‘there are hostages – it is what it is’. But there are families who cannot carry on with their lives”

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In a pre-election debate, the Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez was attacked by his centre-right rival Alberto Núñez Feijóo for relying on EH Bildu’s votes to pass key reforms. “Mr Sánchez, can you sleep at night?” Mr Núñez Feijóo asked, accusing his opponent of allowing “terrorists” to determine the future of Spain.

This accusation was taken up with gusto by part of the right-wing. T-shirts were printed bearing the Spanish flag with the words “Que te vote Txapote”, a controversial slogan referring to a notorious Eta leader imprisoned for murders. Directed at Sánchez, it translates as “Let Txapote vote for you”.

Some voters turned up to polling stations wearing the shirts. This was despite an appeal by a group representing victims of terrorism in the Basque Country for the public not to use the phrase. In a statement ahead of the election the Victims of Terrorism Collective (Covite) said the slogan was “trivialising”, and said it “in no way helps the task of delegitimising terrorism”, describing it as “cruel” that relatives of Txapote’s victims had to repeatedly hear his name.

It is partly due to Covite that the transformation of former militants into political candidates has been more controversial in Spain than it has been in Ireland, North or South.

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In regional elections in May, Covite successfully pressured seven candidates who had run for election with EH Bildu into declaring that they would not take up elected office. The seven had all been convicted for involvement in killings during the armed campaign.

In a joint statement announcing their withdrawal the seven said that they had all backed the transition of the Basque separatist movement to one pursuing its aims “through exclusively political and democratic means”. They said they were withdrawing out of respect to victims, and to ensure they did not “add the slightest suffering” to what was already inflicted.

However, they defended 37 other candidates who had been convicted of association with Eta, though not of violent acts, saying that many convictions were due to the conflation of Basque activism in general with Eta in the past. The statement insisted that their participation in EH Bildu was “not intended to legitimise Eta”.

Covite, which defines itself as politically independent and insists its aims of “memory, truth, dignity, and justice” have no political ideology, takes a very different view. It accuses anyone who was part of Eta of contributing to its violence through their membership alone. It also rejects the view that those within the movement who worked to convince hardliners to lay down their arms and adopt democratic means should be given credit for the peace.

“In no way do we owe the peace that we enjoy today to those who murdered, or to those who promoted the murders,” the organisation said in a statement in May.

It has refused to take part in ceremonies commemorating victims that involve EH Bildu, rejecting as insufficient a landmark 2021 statement led by EH Bildu’s leader Arnaldo Otegi that expressed sorrow for victims’ pain and said it “should never have happened”.

What would suffice?

“Stop calling the murderers of our relatives political prisoners. Stop demanding their impunity in mass demonstrations... stop paying homage in public to deceased Eta members,” Covite president Consuelo Ordóñez demanded in a statement in May, accusing the party of giving young people “the idea that terrorists are heroes”.

Until EH Bildu does this and condemns Eta, “they will have no legitimacy to say that they make their decisions to contribute to peace”, she concluded.