Otegi advocates building a better society without prisoners in prisons

Madrid. The leader of the Basque separatist left, Arnaldo Otegi, advocated that “there be no Basque political prisoners” as “an investment in the future” and in pursuit of “coexistence in this country, as well as the memory of the victims.” The leader of EH-Bildu took advantage of his intervention in an interview on Radio Euskadi to deny the version that his political party negotiated with the central government, of the socialist Pedro Sánchez, and with his party, the PSOE, a reform to “reduce” the sentences of ETA members still serving sentences in Spanish prisons.

In an interview on Radio Euskadi, Otegi explained that at no time did he negotiate this matter with the Spanish Executive: “There has not been any negotiation, what there has been is the transposition of a European directive to which the PP once incorporated a cheating amendment. in which he made an exception for Basque prisoners, so what has been done now is to correct that situation through an amendment by Sumar.”

In any case, Otegi pointed out that “beyond the fact that this may generate more or less controversy, the resolution of the problem of prisoners, memory and respect for the victims would have to be understood more as an investment in the coexistence of the future.” of the country than as a resolution of things that have happened in the past. This is our position. We have been throwing two stories in each other’s faces for a long time. Each one will maintain a certain story or will have seen things in a certain way, but we must begin or make an effort to understand that the future does not happen through this dynamic, but through

understand that the resolution of the issue of prisoners, that there are no Basque political prisoners in prisons, etc., is an investment in the future. And the same as respect for the memory of the victims, of course.”