The decision was taken with joy to suspend the economic part of the Egunkaria case – which has not yet taken the last judicial step of the closure, as it is believed – and is especially comfortable by the defendants and their closest ones, over many other valuations, because the person needs a degree of tranquility to live. But cholera, rage, indignation, among other things, happen with the joy that many of the damage suffered in the last decade around the case is irreparable. Torture is indelible, Egunkaria will not be reopened, unemployed workers will not return to work on 20 February 2003, the months spent in prison are irrecoverable…

So what? Compensation would then be needed, but there is not much hope that it will be paid, especially with those who are currently in charge in Spain. What if, in five or ten years' time, the command staff were in more democratic hands? If the victims of ETA deserve recognition and reparation, why not all the victims captured by the Egunkaria affair? The response of the state: because justice is not perfect and, after all, this is the end, a sign of the functioning of justice. That is what Madrid said with the closure of the Egin newspaper, or with the acquittal of the defendants in the main section of the Egunkaria case, or after many other abuses of Spanish justice.

In addition to attacking the dignity of the people, leaving the wound open, the deficiencies of Spanish democracy are highlighted even more with this type of State behavior. And, drop by drop, the erosion of the Spanish Justice has devoured the credibility of the State in Basque society. How are they not going to realise that on that road they are getting further and further away from Basque society? They are the jokes of power, the food of the impunity of the authority, but those who cannot see them disappear from the front lines of the sociedad.Entre the political forces of Basque society do not question the reparation and recognition that

ETA victims need, despite the differences that exist about its realization. In the name of Spanish law, for example, for a prisoner's photo to appear publicly is sufficient for the prisoner to be insulted and condemned to the victims of ETA. Or many think that the Abertzale left should go further in its self-criticism or… But no one doubts that they need repair and recognition.

Memory is, after all, one more field of struggle, which can be channelled either by negotiation or by taxation. If it is done by negotiation, it will develop more stable and more firmly. The tax will be paid at some point and will not be effective for coexistence. But, moreover, it cannot be totally forbidden or imposed, because if a significant percentage of the population so wishes, it will find the way and the place of dealing with the memory of their own, whether in Aritxulegi, Larrun or in the Anboto tip. Rather than remembering, how the issue is, and it is better to agree that through dialogue than for the Civil Guard to decide what and what not. Walking the streets of Northern Ireland is, for example, a real immersion exercise in various memories. Is the key to rapprochement or release of prisoners indispensable in Madrid, but also in all the elements necessary for a peace process? It is time for pp and PSOE to face a serious peace process and, if they do not, the road would have to be made between the rest of the forces.

Example of prisoners: The Basque Parliament approved last week, for the seventh year in a row, the request to bring prisoners of eta closer to Euskal Herria. Pp and PSE. Okay, they have the key and the approaches until they decide. But they do not have the key to the conscience of the citizens and without it, sooner or later, the pp and the PSE have no party. Each with its own way of being, but it is time to act differently with regard to the peace process.