It has not been so long since Arnaldo Otegi declared that the Ertzaintza “is hated by a large part of the [Basque] population” (Basque Radio, 14/03). Hatred is a very common feeling in this century, as the English term hater has become popular. For its part, the ‘popular’ Iñaki Oyarzabal has identified the Basque school as the origin of all our hatreds on the same radio (08/09).

I don't think we in Euskal Herria are more devastating than in other parts of the world, despite school issues. But I am clear that there are people who love hatred a lot. And apparently, Otegi has a reason to justify his repudiation of the Ertzaintza: his “Spanish” police model, “beaten people”. Oyarzábal said that here is the “rencor to Spanish” and has created a curious parallelism with the Abertzale leader. They both perceive each other's hatred very well, but not their own.

From an educational point of view, according to Oyarzabal, in the Basque Autonomous Community we are not fine. Because one of the obligations of public education is to teach to respect authority for society to function with a minimum order. And in that sense, the ambushes with the police that we have witnessed in recent months are not a sign of our good education. However, pp has not seen beyond his political prejudices: hatred of Spain is not our most serious evil, but ours.

Many of those who define themselves as Abertzales do not appreciate public order in their people. And if before the Spanish police were called “occupier”, they are now the local police forces. A significant example is the manifesto that the Gaztetxe de Legazpi published on social media on 18 April, denouncing the dissolution of a meeting of the Ertzaintza – the “occupying forces” – in which, of course, the meeting was held without respect for the anti-pandemic rules.

Despite the sound criticism of the Ertzaintza, I cannot deny that I feel a little bit of healthy envy by the Spanish police. In fact, the cry of the Spanish nationalists Viva España is almost not understood without the incorporation of eta the Civil Guard. This military police officer who, on March 28, 1844, began his journey with the hand of the Duke of Ahumada, is the institution that most appreciates the Spanish people, beyond their political color (SocioMetric, 2019).

Spain understands very well what the Catalan politician said with great meaning in the Spanish Congress and – like Oyarzabal – ‘popular’ López Rodó, who died a long time ago: “When the peasant did not have to carry the sword at the waist to protect himself from the bandits, the State was born” (15/06/1978). In this sense, some who want a Basque State have been forgotten how basic the motto that appears in the Álava shield is for us.

I am not inventing anything; in the 18th century Spain was full of local police who guaranteed road safety, such as the Old Town and Santa Hermandad of Toledo and Talavera. The Diputación Foral de Álava presented minons and that of Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, the miqueletes with pelotazos in the head. The modern state unified public order and considerably reduced the powers of local police, limiting them to supporting deputies and their institutions.

The importance of order in any state, and in the Basque case, in the II, is evident. One of the first decisions taken by lehendakari Agirre after the transfer of this competence by the Republic to the Government of Euzkadi (Gaceta de Madrid, 1936/281) was the creation of the Military Police, for the subsequent protection of the territory since the war. After the war, and with the exile of the government, they would have dissolved this police force, and in passing to the miqueletes of the "traitor provinces", after having also destroyed the foral status of their deputies (BOE, 1937/247). It therefore seemed logical that, when democracy arrived, it would try to revive that police force.

It should not be forgotten that in Álava, Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia all the parties that achieved deputies in 1977, except the ‘popular’, were in favor of this resurrection. López Rodó did not agree at all with the transfer of public order to the autonomous communities, in the conviction that the ‘separatists’ would be engulfed. I couldn't imagine Otegi's words after more than 40 years. And he did not appreciate the order we are the Basques, because the Duke of Smoada, Girón Ezpeleta, was nonsense and his father, Donostiarra. Traitor, our story!