The PP opens a schism in the victims of terrorism by using them against the Democratic Memory Law

Despite the fact that the leader of the PP is a senator, some of the most important associations in number of associates and media presence have not attended the meeting with Feijóo in Congress. Even some victims, individually, have publicly rejected what they have considered a use of terrorist attacks in the debate on the state of the nation and to attack the Democratic Memory Law.

Feijóo himself acknowledged in an interview on Telecinco that the purpose of the meeting with the victims of terrorism was not to talk about them, but about the rule that will be sent to the Senate this Thursday. “What do we explain to these people? Are these people really going to give this thumbs up? law of democratic forgetfulness? Do we explain to these people that Bildu, co-author of the law, does not even condemn the murders of his relatives? This is not how it is built, it is destroyed”, explained the president of the PP.

Feijóo has lacked the truth at least twice in the interview. “After the Spirit of Ermua we were all committed to a clear anti-terrorist policy, not to give prison privileges to ETA prisoners and not to accept homage to terrorists.” But the leader of the PP has ignored the fact that his predecessor in office, José María Aznar, not only brought ETA prisoners closer to the Basque Country or allowed them to be released from prison under a third-degree regimen, but also that a year after the kidnapping and murder of the Ermua councilor opened a negotiation with the terrorist organization.

The leader of the opposition has also said that “all associations” would attend. “Rarely have we had the opportunity to sit at the same table with more than 20 associations”, he assured. But the reality is that not all of them have gone. The PP has reported the attendance of 19, some of them very minority. And he has tiptoed over the absences, some very relevant.

Among the associations that have not attended are the Victims of Terrorism Foundation, whose patronage includes Ángeles Pedraza (former president of the AVT and whom Isabel Díaz Ayuso appointed as manager of 112), Francisco Tomás y Valiente or Gorka Landaburu, among many others. The Foundation in fact represents different organizations and brings together thousands of members.

Nor has COVITE attended, chaired by Consuelo Ordóñez, sister of the Basque PP leader assassinated by ETA in 1995). Ordóñez showed this Wednesday her rejection of the use in Congress by the PP of the memory of the victims of terrorism, and specifically of the blue ribbon that Gesto por la Paz constituted a symbol against political violence in Euskadi.

Other victims have also positioned themselves in networks. The daughter of Juan Mari Jauregi, who was the civil governor of Gipuzkoa with Felipe González, assassinated by ETA in 2000, denounced the use of the blue ribbon and expressly demanded that the general secretary of the PP and spokesperson in Congress “respect the people who suffered threats, aggressions, etc. for carrying that symbol of freedom against ETA”. “Do not appropriate it to star in campaigns for very different purposes for which it was created,” she settled.

Rosa Lluch, daughter of the former Minister of Health Ernest Lluch, also assassinated by ETA in the 1990s, has spoken in similar terms. Lluch has even thanked the words of the EH Bildu spokesperson, Mertxe Aizpurua, who in the Congress tribune said: “We want to convey our sorrow and pain to the victims of ETA. Nothing we say can change the past, but memory and respect can ease it.”

Nor have representatives of the 11M Victims of Terrorism Association attended, which has also expressly denounced “the use of terrorism victims as an argument to oppose the Democratic Memory Bill.”

Among the associations that have attended are, among others, the AVT, the Dignity and Justice Association, the Association to Help Victims of 11-M, the Alberto Jiménez-Becerril Foundation against Terrorism and Violence or the Miguel Ángel Foundation White, among others.