The government rejects that there were “blunders or errors” on the part of the opposition in the legal reform process which validates the sentences of ETA prisoners and attacks the PP for “unworthy use” of terrorism. The minister’s spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, once again defended that it was “about adapting the European directive to our country” which, she recalled, had already been approved by the people of the time in Brussels. And in Moncloa, we assume the practical consequences that its application could have with the early release of ETA prisoners.
“This is a transposition in our country of European regulations that have already been approved by the PP in Europe,” defended Pilar Alegría during the press conference after the Council of Ministers. The spokesperson also underlined that the text which will now see the light of day in Parliament “was debated, processed, voted on in presentation, in committee and in plenary unanimously”.
Alegría also highlighted that the reform, which, according to victims’ associations, could benefit fifty ETA detainees who served part of their sentence in France, was promoted by the Rajoy government in the Council of Ministers. “This text is literally the one approved by Rajoy’s Council of Ministers in 2014. The PP cannot say that it did not know what it was voting for”, he underlined before emphasizing that the PP deputy who defended the reform in plenary session came to talk about its arrival “two years late”.
“ETA ended thirteen years ago, it disappeared, it was a victory for all of Spanish society and democracy. On behalf of the Government and all Spaniards, I demand that the PP stop using in a partisan and obscene way what has caused so much damage to the Spanish people. It’s scandalous. I demand that the PP leaves him now,” shouted the minister, who insisted, describing as “unworthy” the fact that “he uses terrorism to cover his emptiness of proposals, projects and leadership.”
The minister also harshly attacked popular leaders like Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Miguel Tellado. To the Madrid president and the parliamentary spokesperson, who repeated on Wednesday that “ETA has more strength than ever”, Pilar Alegría responded that their statements represent an “insult to the victims of terrorism, to the police, to judges and to prosecutors.” And he added: “These words cannot be said by someone who did not contribute in the slightest to ending ETA. »
