The kidnapping and subsequent murder of the PP councilor of Ermua, Michelangelo White25 years ago now, shocked Euskadi and the rest of Spain and marked a turning point in the mobilization against ETA thanks to the immense citizen reaction that led to a social and political unity unprecedented until that moment. The tribute to the murdered mayor held this Sunday has allowed us to appreciate, however, how five decades later that “spirit of Ermua” is cracked. The act, presided over by the King, was attended by the President of the Government, the Lendakari and the leader of the PP, but former president José María Aznar was absentduring whose mandate the vile assassination took place, and some victims’ associations such as the AVT, the majority. In fact, the PP celebrated its own tribute on Saturday Aznar did attend that one. Those absences, and the harsh Right-wing criticism of Pedro Sánchez for his pacts with EH Bildu, they did not manage, however, that the act in memory of Blanco lost its luster. But that was not what the memory of the murdered young councilor deserved.
The justification for these absences has been precisely the Government’s agreements with the Aberzale left, in particular the last one reached last week on the democratic memory law which extends the period to be investigated until the year 1983, which has raised blisters and has led the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to promise the repeal of this norm as soon as he comes to power. The new law is expected to be voted on in Congress in the extraordinary plenary session next Thursday. Nor did the clumsiness of the socialist mayor of Ermua help to show an image of unity in Sunday’s act, who did not initially foresee the intervention of Marimar Blanco, the sister of the murdered mayor, in the tribute, which, despite the subsequent rectification , left a bitter aftertaste among the popular.
It is surprising, however, that more than ten years have passed since ETA stopped killing and four since it announced its dissolution and that the terrorist group continues to be so present for some in the political debate. The objective of the successive anti-terrorist pacts that were signed for decades, starting with the one with Ajuria Enea, was to get the ETA members to stop killing and defend their positions through political means. This is what they are doing now, although the Spanish right, and some socialist sectors, find it hard to admit it. But in the face of the harsh criticism that Sánchez is receiving for his agreements with Bildu and those that President Zapatero received in his day for starting a peace process, it should be remembered that after Blanco’s assassination in July 1997 Aznar was the first to authorize a negotiation with the ETA members in February 1999. Some talks that were held in Zurich and that did not prosper. The political unity against ETA was not broken then, as it was in the Zapatero trial in 2005, because the PSOE supported the PP government’s attempt to seek a negotiated end.
Fortunately, all of that is now history. However, the battle for the story remains pending, to establish a memory of what happened adjusted to reality. This again requires the democrats unity against those who still try to justify terror. Settle that fair memory would be the best tribute that can be paid to Miguel Ángel Blanco and all the victims.