- Maider Etxebarria, of the PSE, has asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the act and the toast organized at the festivities of the Judimendi neighborhood “in favor of the rights of the neighborhood’s prisoners” to “investigate if there is a crime and, if applicable, to direct it to the criminal jurisdiction”. For its part, the City Council will consider the possibility of reintegrating municipal subsidies.
Maider Etxebarria took office as Mayor on Saturday, June 17, following a government agreement with the PNV and thanks to the votes of the PP councillors. Last Friday he gave his first press conference after the plenary. By then, Covite or the PP asked the mayor to “prevent” the toast in favor of the prisoners to be held on Friday. On the night of San Juan and within the holiday programming of the Judimendi neighborhood, they were announced, first, “pasacalles por ausentes”, and then “brindis and act in defense of the rights of the prisoners of the neighborhood”.
When asked at the press conference “about the scandal”, Etxebarria informed the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the act and of the toast to “investigate the existence of the crime and, where appropriate, direct it to criminal jurisdiction”. The PSE-PNV takes part on behalf of the municipal government: “This Government finds it disgusting to find at the moment a matter related to the uprising of ETA members.”
The Mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz also announced that the City Hall will open a file on the possibility of requesting the return of funds to investigate and assess the application of the subsidies granted to the parties in the neighborhood. “I want to be firm: let it be very clear that this city hall does not subsidise such actions.”
Gorka Uraran did the same
“This is not the first time that a similar controversy emerges with the Judimensiondi festivities,” says Etxebarria. In 2018, National Mayor Gorka Uraran denounced the act of Basque repatriation of three prisoners in the district.