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Txema Montero: "ETA has been a negative model for Basque citizenship"

  • Txema Montero (Bilbao, 1954). Former HB MEP, lawyer of ETA prisoners, expelled from HB, for years member of the Sabino Arana Foundation and implacable analyst, among others. ARGIA replied in writing to these five questions.
Argazkilaria: Judit Fernández

ETA has already disappeared. What has ETA been?

A negative model for Basque citizenship. The use of force, first selective and extensive, led the Etarras to a tremendous mistake: to equate political objectives and military means, ETA made independence and armed struggle inseparable. This far-reaching ugliness is the product of his armed pride. This form of his domain has shown an air of contempt: alone, willing to everything, touched by destiny, placed in an elevated place, possessed of the perspective offered by the upper part of the grade. However, the lack of capacity of the Basques to join their project and violent method, both unacceptable to the majority of our society, ETA stood in place: looking from the bottom up, they could not rise higher on the stands, despite trying to open the way to shots.

From now on, there will be more talk about the need to make the left Abertzale self-critical. What should I say?

Until the end of ETA they have not been able to realize that Basque society, tired of war, had decided – forgiving – to opt for the political route, which did not want to join death any more. They will have to admit that man cannot be forced to join an ideology, that one must turn away from prophecies and undemocratic paths, that one must distrust the theorists who explain everything. Instead, we have to take into account those who look at the world with a humble and prudent look.

What is needed now to ensure that the rights of Basque prisoners are respected?

The courts must be called upon to complain about infringements of their rights. The transfer of prison powers must be ensured so that the prison watchmen of the Courts of Justice of the CAV and Navarra are competent, and so as to guarantee the executive sentences of the prisoners convicted of terrorism, as happened in the past. Action must be taken before the institutions, parties and public opinion to transfer prisoners to the prisons closest to their families. We must remember time and again the unequal penalties imposed on prisoners.

How have you seen the peace process from 2011 to today?

Long and winding road that brings us to the starting point: The unilateral decision of ETA was made for itself and expressly. I thought the end of the armed struggle declared by ETA was the end of the organization itself, it was over. That peace was the absence of ETA, that ETA was not, without further adjectives, that is, that the last final staging was not a matter of interest.

In your view, what are the next steps to take to move forward and complete the process? How should the main actors involved in the process, the Abertzale Left, the State and the NIP take action?

As long as they are not clarified by the same organisation of murders and disappearances attributed to ETA, I do not end the process. In fact, if these circumstances are not clarified, the relatives of the victims will never end their mourning for death. The same applies to the State: it has not recognised the GAL, whose responsibility and mission is theirs, being responsible for several missing persons. For the rest, I call on the main actors you call to make policy to take account of an obvious truth: the criteria for the future will also judge our generation one day.


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