Spain’s right-wing opposition says it was duped by the government into voting for a reform to the prison system that would lead to the early release of more than 40 members of the Basque terrorist group Eta.
The reform, to a law governing the sharing of criminal records, was approved by the lower house in September, with all parties voting for it. One of its clauses means that prison time served abroad will be counted in a criminal’s favour, reducing the overall time they must spend in Spanish jails.
The Socialist-led government has argued the change is in line with EU norms. However, parties on the right are now arguing they were tricked into supporting it because they were not aware that the reform would benefit members of Eta.
The Basque group waged a four-decade campaign of violence in a bid for an independent state, killing 853 people before disbanding in 2018. Spain’s political right often suggests Eta’s influence continues among Basque radicals and even in national politics.
The Association for Terrorism Victims (ATV) has said that 44 Eta prisoners could see their jail sentences reduced, of whom 23 have been convicted of violent crimes. Among them is Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, also known as Txapote, who was convicted of several murders. He was due to be released in 2032 but under this reform could finish his sentence next year, the AVT says, having also served prison time in France.
“We always wanted an end to terrorism with winners and losers,” said AVT president Maite Araluce. “But we never imagined that the winners would be the terrorists and the losers would be the victims.”
The leader of the main opposition Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said his conservatives had made an “unjustifiable mistake” in voting in favour of the reform. He claimed the government had pushed through the clause benefiting Eta prisoners surreptitiously with “a parliamentary stunt of enormous moral turpitude”.
The bill was due to be voted on by the Senate, which is controlled by the opposition, on Tuesday. However, the upper house, which cannot prevent the reform from being coming into effect, has delayed the final vote until next week.
Both the AVT and the opposition have accused the government of introducing the reform as part of a deal with the Basque pro-independence coalition EH Bildu, whose support it needs in Congress. The political right frequently casts EH Bildu as the ideological heir of Eta.
The government denies any such agreement with EH Bildu. Its spokeswoman, Pilar Alegría, said the PP “cannot say that it did not know what it was voting for” and that there had been neither “tricks nor mistakes” in the reform’s passage, which she said had been transparent.
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