PP, Vox and Cs launch an offensive in Congress for the minister to clarify if there was “favorable treatment” with the terrorists
The revelation of the contacts of Penitentiary Institutions, dependent on the Ministry of the Interior, with the environment of ETA prisoners to analyze and plan possible prison benefits as well as prison transfers have once again put Fernando Grande-Marlaska in the spotlight of the opposition. PP, Vox and Ciudadanos have launched a parliamentary offensive against the Minister of the Interior so that he is accountable in Congress for what they consider a “favorable treatment” and “immoral pastry” of the Government with the ETA environment. The popular and the formation of Santiago Abascal go a step further and demand his immediate departure from the Executive. “This is something unacceptable. Pedro Sánchez must stop it today, “Pablo Casado demanded today during a visit to Zamora.
The leader of the PP denounced the “indignity” of the President of the Government and the Minister of the Interior for negotiating with the ETA member Antonio López Ruiz, ‘Kubati’, in exchange for EH Bildu’s support for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez or the General State Budgets . According to the Civil Guard report, to which this newspaper has had access, the head of Penitentiary Institutions, Ángel Luis Ortiz, held periodic, regular meetings without intermediaries with the pro-ETA environment, of which ‘Kubati’ is a key piece, at least in the first months of the socialist’s arrival in Moncloa. Both parties analyzed the “priorities” in the rapprochements and other penitentiary movements that the nationalist left considered preferred. “They are agreeing with a murderer of thirteen innocents to give prison benefits and rapprochement of prisoners in exchange for votes,” Casado lamented.
From the main opposition party they also insist on the need to promote an investigation commission in the lower house to clarify what happened and purge the possible political responsibilities of this “privileged” treatment of terrorists. They consider it “unworthy” and “intolerable” that a country that has suffered “850 murders by ETA criminals” now sees how the Government “agrees with them”
Based on that argument, the conservative leader went on to ask for the vote for his candidate in Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, in the elections this Sunday. “This,” he affirmed, “will also be voted on” in three days. «We can decide between the PP or the partners of EH Bildu, between growth and employment or the indignity of selling out to a murderer -stressed Casado- in exchange for a handful of votes to continue in Moncloa».
The popular ones will submit to the scrutiny of the Chamber next week their proposed law to reform the Statute of the Victim of Crime that contemplates, among other aspects, measures to put a stop to tributes to terrorists -the well-known ‘ongi etorri’- and give voice to the victims, by means of the presentation of appeals and allegations, in the procedures for the granting of third degree, approach to Basque prisons or any type of penitentiary benefits to the condemned ETA members.
In addition, they establish a direct relationship between these events and the statements of the leader of EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi, who during the negotiation of the 2022 Budgets assured his supporters of his willingness to approve the public accounts if this led to the release of the ETA prisoners. “Given the indignity of the agreement of five prisoners for five votes,” the PP parliamentary spokesperson, Cuca Gamarra, said yesterday, referring to EH Bildu’s five seats in Congress, “we demand memory, dignity, truth and justice.”
THE PHRASES:
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Pablo Casado – President of the PP.
“They are agreeing with the murderer of thirteen innocents to give prison benefits and rapprochement of prisoners in exchange for votes” -
Isabel Rodríguez – Government Spokesperson.
«The Government always moves in the field of law, justice and penitentiary institutions»
Vox, for its part, has presented a non-law proposal where it asks for the disapproval of Grande-Marlaska and his resignation. Those of Santiago Abascal have also requested the appearance of the Minister of the Interior and the Secretary General of Penitentiary Institutions after hearing the report.
Specifically, they want Marlaska to go to the Interior Commission to report on the prison policy carried out by his Ministry in relation to ETA prisoners and to account for the communication channels of his portfolio with leaders of Sortu and EH Bildu and representatives of the ETA prisoners. A parliamentary offensive that Ciudadanos has also joined, whose spokesman, Edmundo Bal, registered today in Congress a request for the appearance of Marlaska and Ortiz for an alleged “favor treatment.”
Government Defense
The reaction of the Government was immediate and the Minister of Territorial Policy and Government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, closed ranks with Grande-Marlaska. “Any other consideration means questioning our democracy and the management in the administrative field carried out by these public officials,” he pointed out in a meeting with the media at the University of Salamanca, before settling that “the Government moves in the field of law and justice.”
The requests for the appearance of the Minister of the Interior and the person in charge of prisons, however, do not seem to prosper. The most probable thing is that PSOE and United We Can knock them down with their majority in the Table of the Lower House.