Basque Country, Spain
Nine years ago, pending the adoption of the Mordaza Law, the Council of Europe itself said that the law was going to be “disproportionate” and its “great concern”. “This law is a reactionary and conservative absurdity to criminalize street protest and criticism,” said Joan Queralt, professor of criminal law in Barcelona. Representatives of the associations Judge of Democracy and Progressive Lawyers pointed out that the law is “useless, repressive and inadequate”. Unfortunately, the latest disproportionate sanctions against the youth organisations GKS, Jarki and Ernai show us that all these forecasts have been met.
According to the balance of the ELEAK-Libre movement on the first year of application of this Law of Citizen Security in the Basque Country, based on official data provided by the Basque and Navarro governments and published by the Basque magazine ARGIA, the law was applied on 3,052 occasions. In 2016, an average of 33 weekly sanctions were imposed in the Autonomous Community of Navarra. Regarding the territorial scope of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, the sanctions imposed by the Ertzaintza between July 2015 and December 2016 were 8,087 in total, an average of 88 weeks. That is, the first year of validity, each week, more than 110 times the Law of Citizen Security in Hego Euskal Herria was applied... And since then, things have only made a mistake.
In 2016, both the Parliaments of Navarre and the CAV stood against the Mordaza Law, and the Basque Parliament in June 2016 urged the Basque Government not to apply the Mordaza Law. In the last nine years, however, there has been no more than a strengthening of the implementation of the Mordaza Act.
In 2018, seeing that both governments had no intention to comply with these decisions, most of the social, trade union and political actors in Euskal Herria requested the repeal of the Mordaza Law. Among other things, they joined the request of the ELEAK - Libre movement, Ongi Etorri Refugees, Komite Internazionalistak, Euskal Herriko Bilgune Feminista, Bake Ekintza Talde Antimilitaristak, Ernai Gazte Mugiak, Askapena, NOR Raikal Heratig Koruskeusak. Among the unions, ELA, LAB, ESK and STEE EILAS joined and among the political forces, Sortu, Equo and EH Bildu. Finally, among the public media, ARGIA, Hala Bedi and Topatu. In short, the majority of Basque society requested the repeal of the Mordaza Act. No case.
In 2019, the ELEAK-Libre movement made clear in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights what happened: “The Organic Law 4/2015, on Citizen Protection, Mordaza Law, has clearly accentuated police abuses and violations of the fundamental rights of assembly, demonstration, organization and freedom of the press, increasing the repression against political criticism and social mobilization. This Law implies the disappearance of the existing procedural safeguards in any sanction proceeding, undermining the principle of legal certainty, legality, defence and presumption of innocence, as well as the equality of the parties/processes and the principle of proportionality. All this legislation encourages the criminalization and repression of social, trade union and political movements, so we have called on the United Nations to urge the Spanish State to repeal it immediately.”
In 2021, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlaska, in an interview given to the newspaper The New York Times, stated that the Government of Pedro Sánchez had the will to revise the Mordaza Law. Since then, more than 50 meetings have been held between the political forces present at the Madrid Congress, but today the Mordaza Law is still in force and the political massacre generated by its implementation.
In the Northern Basque Country there is no Mordaza Law, but the French Government has also taken its cutting steps to end the social protest. Proof of this are the proliferation of police files and the reinforcement of controls, or the militants who have been condemned for the defence of the land, the fight against speculation or the participation in actions for the Basque people. In other words, Euskal Herria has become a Moorish territory.
And where is our answer the same size? It doesn't exist. All those of us who believe that civil disobedience, lack of collaboration, input, popular resistance or direct action are not crimes, must unite, put them into practice and strengthen them by organizing social boxes of resistance to the attacks we are suffering. If we do not change the rules of the game, ours has done so, we will be ruined by all rights.
We must turn repression into an instrument that strengthens our freedom project. The more attacks on us, the more mobilizing responses we must respond. In that we have to be stronger, tireless, enduring, fearful. We must develop strategies of civil resistance and disobedience. It is the turn of civil resistance, the rebellion of the national and social construction. The Basque political actors involved in institutional dynamics will not do so. It's time for popular movement.
Joseba Alvarez, member of the Left Abertzale
Bidali zure iritzi artikuluak iritzia@argia.eus helbide elektronikora
ARGIAk ez du zertan bat etorri artikuluen edukiarekin. Idatzien gehienezko luzera 4.500 karakterekoa da (espazioak barne). Idazkera aldetik gutxieneko zuzentasun bat beharrezkoa da: batetik, ARGIAk ezin du hartu zuzenketa sakona egiteko lanik; bestetik, egitekotan edukia nahi gabe aldatzeko arriskua dago. ARGIAk azaleko zuzenketak edo moldaketak egingo dizkie artikuluei, behar izanez gero.
“It’s been 18 years since some 400 graffiti appeared on the excavation, 16 years since he was expelled from the excavation camp of Lurmen without scientific evidence and 4 years since the trial was held without clarifying the subject, we can say that we continue to... [+]
In this frenetic and vertiginous world in which we live, the social changes that take place little by little seem to us to be sometimes imperceptible, irrelevant or insignificant. That is not the case, however, and we have to be aware of it in order to act wisely. An example of... [+]
On Sunday of September it is customary to climb to Ernio, dance in Zelatun and eat brown chorizo, or something. The worst time you don't need people. This year, when my friends were leaving earlier and I was delaying, I would go up alone, finding the crews coming down. Most young... [+]
In the border book of The House on Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros, a character's dog has two names: one in Spanish and one in English. It may be odd at first sight, even for a book, but if you think more calmly, you realize that the world is full of double names. And I... [+]
It was impossible to guess who was or who was the motto I read, but who was!
Ángel González Olvera was known in Mexico 11 years ago when the bertsolaris invited us to a few days with their improvisers. He lived on a high hill, feeding on birds, pigeons, pigeons, hedgehogs,... [+]
The Utopians of the book Utopia of Thomas Moro loved to read it. The good education of the letters had led them to start in childhood and to continue their adult life without anyone ordering anything, reading and learning and reading more. Imagine the time devoted to it for the... [+]
As in the Middle Ages God dominated, in modern times we live under the market and its rigid laws. The high level wages are determined by the market, as the prizes of the CEOs of Iberdrola or BBVA mark the markets of their sector, although they take 300 times more to the bag than... [+]
In the podkweek The diogenes flashlight I have found many ideas to keep thinking about the interview with Miguel Benasayag-eg. Among them, the reflections that human beings make on our relations with technology a.En, dialogue compares the influence of different technologies in... [+]
The third time I received the same data as the student, I remembered nothing more than those widely used phrases, in which nothing had crushed my intelligence. “We are nothing,” “life makes no sense,” “God, if he is as innocent as they say, why does this do us?” It... [+]
The responsibility lies with the Zionist State of Israel, which, with the help of a large part of the population, soldiers, settlers, etc., is doing ethnic cleansing and genocide against the countries and peoples around it.
Western states also support them, give them weapons... [+]
That was said to me by the former student, who took a long time to file a complaint that was in court months and who, on the recommendation of the psychologist, had withdrawn the complaint of rape. And I kept quiet, unable to guess what to tell the young man that he still had... [+]
Isn't it a sign of pride to look at the people in front of me as if they weren't people? Yes, of course yes. But how can we expect others to understand? Understand, observe, look. Does wanting to understand others not require this proud attitude? Knowing what it is to be a person,... [+]
They say it's been a year. I have never understood the arrogant habit that Westerners have: even if the conflict lasts almost a century, we adapt the dates to our liking, giving away the importance we want. Has the last era been different for the Palestinians who are imprisoned... [+]