Do former ETA members belong in parliament?

My Basque friend and I don’t talk about politics much. However, after putting forward ex-terrorists as candidates, the pro-Basque independence party EH achieved historic results in May’s regional elections. The party breached its vote record and is now the largest municipal party in the Bilbao region, with a total of 1,395 councillors. Pedro Sánchez’s socialist party, however, delivered disastrous results. Now, the prime minister’s main concern is whether Sunday’s snap election will deliver similarly poor results.

Crossing a bridge in Bilbao’s old town prior to the election, walking past the smiling faces of political candidates beaming out from their posters, things got heated and a bit uncomfortable. I tried to explain to my companion why it was controversial to put up ex-ETA members as election candidates, especially as some of them have murder convictions. ETA was the armed terror group that fought a violent campaign for Basque independence. It was a bad moment to bump into his friend, a candidate for EH Bildu, and her staunchly pro-independence Catalan friend. I became the designated Madrid mouthpiece.

All of us agreed that the far right was exploiting the presence of former ETA members on the regional ballot paper as a wedge issue. There was less agreement, however, on whether EH Bildu’s proposed candidate list, which included 44 former ETA members, seven of whom had been charged with murder, had added to that problem.

Back at the flat, I talked it over with two English friends. “Should a former terrorist be able to run for election?”

In the Basque country, there’s no straightforward answer to that. The region has its own language, culture and independence movement, all of which were banned or censored during Franco’s dictatorship.

Under Franco, the Basque people also suffered from a four-decade terrorist campaign carried out by ETA – “Euskadi Ta Askatasuna”, which means “Basque homeland and freedom”. The group’s terrorism continued after Spain’s transition to democracy, and the years immediately after the transition were the group’s deadliest. After many false starts, ETA declared a permanent ceasefire in 2011 and dissolved in 2018.

Nowadays, ETA has a mixed reputation among the Basques, and older generations who lived through its terror campaign have the least favourable view. The group lost most of its public support due to its use of violence. Day to day, the odd bit of pro-ETA graffiti is the closest you’ll get to any evidence of support.

The UK recently marked the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which brought peace to Northern Ireland. Rishi Sunak described the agreement as an “incredible moment in our nation’s history”.

As part of the agreement, prisoners from both sides would be released from jail within two years. Killers walked free – but it was deemed the necessary price to achieve long-lasting peace.

In 1999, when ETA was still active, the former conservative Spanish prime minister José María Aznar said: “Taking possession of a seat is always preferable to taking up arms. This is the short, clear and democratic question.”

When ETA finally disbanded, the then-prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, said: “We said that if they gave up terror they would have a place in the institutions, and I believe that this democratic promise must be kept.”
My English friends and I discussed it. One admitted that, on reflection, he saw the case for why former ETA members were put forward as candidates. Another conceded that the matter was more complicated than they had first thought.

My Basque friend’s mind, however, remained unchanged – and determined.