“ETA is the last symbol of Francoism.” The authorship of the phrase is lost in time, but already in the lead years, back in the 80s, the statement went viral without the need for social networks. It was repeated in radio talk shows, in-depth articles and television programs, where, from multiple arguments, experts specialized in the terrorist gang and the “Basque problem” reasoned – most convincingly – why the gang was in the middle of that decade the last embers of the dictatorship. Overcome the coup of 81, and with the military controlled in its barracks, in the middle of the decade the marks that seemed indelible had practically disappeared in a country that was beginning to overcome the past and settle, not just the Transition, but democracy itself. Only ETA lasted.
When 10 years have just passed since the capitulation of ETA and the end of what those related to the gang called ‘armed struggle’, Francoism seemed a period already passed and therefore reserved for history books. However, it seems as if in Spain we have not just got used to closing dark periods in transit to others that allow the entry of clarity into a new era. In the last year, from the rostrum of Congress We have heard from those who say they deny the Francoist heritage that the Government of Pedro Sánchez was “the worst in the last 80 years”, which is equivalent to including in the premise that if this is true, the Sánchez governments have not only been the worst, but the cabinets headed by the dictator Francisco Franco were even better. Ergo, it seems that not only with the end of ETA the last nostalgic element of the dictatorship was diluted.
That of Vox has not been the only case in which historical times have been valued that society and a very large part of the Spanish political class already consider overcome. They will say that they did not put it that way, but surreptitiously we all got the message. OR that of “we must annihilate 26 million”, as it was written in a WhatsApp chat of retired military personnel. Ready for combat! Go for the reds! ”Added another in the same conversation.
ETA germinated under anti-Franco prejudices that lacked all sense once the Constitution was established, but if you don’t like my principles, I have others, and so it continued, between rubber 2, kidnappings, extortion and car bombs, spreading terror throughout the Spanish geography for another 40 years .
It seems clear that in the last quarter of the twentieth century, the Franco regime had more of an imprint on society than democracy itself due to the natural fact that the majority of citizens had lived under the previous regime than in the Spain of the autonomous regions. And yet, the bull hide, always divided into two camps, was divided between those who lived better with Franco and those who suffered from it, until, and now I am referring to ETA, there was another social element where those against Franco could fit. they lived better.
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10 years ago, when the gang gave up with the abandonment of the armed struggle, this last social segment, that of those who lived better against Franco or to whom at least the dictatorship gave meaning to their struggle and their lives, also began to to become extinct. That is why the species that there are still democratically elected representatives that appeal to those years of Franco as the best than those led by Pedro Sánchez and his government partners.
The words of Arnaldo Otegi On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the end of ETA’s terrorist activity, they may be late, they may sound like an apology conditional on the support that the Executive should have from the aberzale left to carry out the Budget and delay the return of the Party as much as possible Popular to La Moncloa, but it’s a hopeful start on the road to reconciliation, whose impossibility both bled the Spanish population in general and that of the Basque Country in particular. The Franco regime ended de facto 10 years ago, let’s not allow it to turn green again.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com