The previous Deputy Minister of Security, Rodrigo Gartzia, signed a sanctioning file on August 13 against an Ertzaintza agent who actively participated in an uncommunicated protest by Vox against the PSE-EE headquarters in Alameda de Rekalde in the center of Bilbao on November 12, 2023. The official, off duty that day, uttered insults against the force deployed and even irregularly used his badge to allege that he was a “companion” and trying to avoid a sanction. Afterwards, he went “tearful” to the Deusto police station to try to convince the head of operations that he was unaware that it was an illegal political act.
This mobilization was framed in the wave of calls from the extreme right against the then recently renewed Government of Pedro Sánchez and against the agreed amnesty law for the Catalan independentists condemned by the ‘procés’ of 2017. The report, advanced by ‘Gara’ and to which this newspaper has had access, confirms that the protesters shouted against the officers deployed, whom they called “dogs” or “sons of bitches.” The protest was led by a person dressed in a checkered shirt and of tall stature. Next to him, a shorter person was identified shouting “you don’t have balls with the Moors” to the uniformed officers deployed there. A few minutes later, the actors knew that it was an off-duty Ertzaintza agent.
The detail of the sequence of what happened began at 1:15 p.m. “There were disturbances in public order,” according to the Police, and this forced intervention, both with uniformed officers and plainclothes units. A non-commissioned officer warned the promoters that the concentration “was not communicated” and that they were “obstructing the normal movement of pedestrians.” But, “due to the persistence” of the gatherings, “we proceeded” to identify the ringleaders, as well as to arrest a person for an “alleged crime of attack against law enforcement agents.” Later is when those present began to insult the deployed ertzainas. “Especially active” was the tall person “next to him” who later turned out to be an agent. He was clearly seen saying the expression “you don’t have balls with the Moors.”
When the Police caught up with them at the height of a Starbucks, the shorter one “limited himself to verbally identifying himself as a companion.” The report states that the agents asked him for more clarifications, since he could have been an infiltrator or an official from another body. Then he showed his professional badge. This did not stop the imposition of a fine in application of the Citizen Security regulations, known as the ‘gag law’. The ertzaina immediately went to the Deusto base and, “tearful and saddened,” according to the official report, “came to tell the head of operations that he did not know that it was an uncommunicated concentration, that he had not been shouting. and that he had not identified himself as an ertzaina” to try to avoid the sanction.
The facts have been considered a “serious” offense, although the penalty has been modulated to only seven days without employment and salary and exchangeable for seven days of unpaid work. Of course, the resolution includes the importance of the proper use of professional identification, which in no case should serve personal interests outside of service. It is considered proven by all the witnesses, who have testified before Internal Affairs, that the official clearly exceeded his limits. During the processing of the file, the affected person presented his allegations “extemporaneously.”
It so happens that a year ago the Internal Affairs unit opened another “internal investigation” into the participation of another plainclothes and off-duty Ertzaintza agent in the protests of the right and the extreme right, in this case in Vitoria. Apparently, based on the data provided at the time, that police officer would have received two complaints in application of the Citizen Security law, known as the ‘gag law’.
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