News

The Basque Parliament on Thursday approved a resolution which endorsed the prison policy carried out by the Spanish Government for the very first time in history. The resolution was supported by Basque socialists and conservatives and UPyD, and was rejected by Basque nationalists, Basque left wing party Aralar, and EB-IU, or the Basque branch of United Left.

The supported text was an amendment of Union, Progress and Democracy party after Eusko Alkartasuna made a proposal which asked for an end to the dispersion of inmates related to the Basque armed group ETA. According to them, they should serve their sentences near from their families.

The Basque Parliament supported the Spanish Government''s prison policy for the first time, so the PNV nationalist party''s spokesman, Iñigo Iturrate, disagreed with the decision arguing that the assembly of Vitoria-Gasteiz had adopted seven totally opposed resolutions in the last 14 years.

Those texts asked for the prisoners to serve their sentences closer to their places of origin. According to Iturrate, the decision is very far from the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

José Antonio Pastor (PSE-EE) said that the main objective of the debate, originally proposed by EA, was "using ETA inmates to keep on feeding the sacred fires of nationalism."

Carlos Urquijo (PP) said that this kind of proposals just follow "the blackmail of terrorists" but disguised in "goodness." He reminded that the late Miguel Angel Blanco, brother of current parlamentarian Mari Mar Blanco, was killed because the government did not allow the transfer of inmates to the prisons of the Basque Country.