The Ertzaintza Interior Unit, which currently oversees a staff of around 7,400 people, has opened 78 disciplinary files for “serious” or “very serious” infractions between 2022 and June 26, 2024, reported to the Basque Parliament the Security. Councilor, Bingen Zupiria, who took office precisely on these same dates at the beginning of the summer. EH Bildu, in a context where several controversial cases involving Basque Police officers have been made public, had demanded the data and files from the Security, but the Government of Imanol Pradales emphasizes that it cannot make this information public and that it opposes it. you will be able to consult it during a visit to the police stations, which is generally covered by confidentiality commitments.
Without much detail, Security indicates that in 2022 there were 35 cases, which were 28 in 2023 and remain at 15 until June 26, 2024, when the Executive was replaced and Josu Erkoreka gave way to a new head of portfolio, the former spokesperson and former Minister of Culture. It is not specified how many of these cases were “very serious” and not just “serious”. This is not a minor detail. The current Police Law, revised in 2020 after the changes made during the second term of Iñigo Urkullu, proposes a suspension of up to two years or even a “cessation of service” in “very serious” cases, while if it is not reached This classification, the case can be resolved by a change of destination or by suspensions of employment and salary of less than a year, or even four days.
This newspaper has asked the Security for more details, but official sources stress that they cannot offer more information than what is contained in the very brief report sent at the request of EH Bildu, which is only a few paragraphs long. Of course, Zupiria is waiting to answer other questions in Parliament about specific cases, such as that of an Irun agent who changed her gender in the registry to identify herself as a woman and who appears as a teacher for the ultra organization Desokupa.
The internal life of Ertzaintza has been under scrutiny in recent months. In 2023, when a large “union” movement called “Ertzainas en lutte” emerged, six leaders were sanctioned for violating the “neutrality” required by law and supporting the protests when this group demonstrated in front of the Basque Parliament. Both the Interior and the External Commission for Control and Transparency of the Police, chaired by former magistrate Juan Luis Ibarra, have accumulated on their tables a succession of cases that have transcended public opinion, such as the operation of the last Champions League match of Real Sociedad men’s football, which left a woman injured, a video in Irún in which a person who was not even arrested is seen being beaten or, more recently, the cases of an agent who also changed sex when registered and is being investigated for attacks on his partner – this is also treated as gender violence – or that of another agent who went from being the pursuer of three thieves who had burglarized his home to being a suspect in a triple attempted murder of these people.
