(ANSA) - MADRID, 19 OCT - On 20 October 2011 the Basque terrorist organization Eta announced the end of its armed activity, after about 50 years of violence that caused the deaths of over 850 people in Spain.
A moment remembered in the Iberian country, ten years later, as an opportunity for collective reflection on the wounds still open and on the process of social and political reconciliation both in the Basque Country and on a national scale.
On the eve of this symbolic recurrence, the political and media debate is centered on the turning point of the so-called 'abertzale' left, or the area of parties considered the political arm of the Basque radical separatist movement: the historical leader and former member of ETA Arnaldo Otegi said yesterday that " the pain of the victims would never have been there "and that he and his party feel" sincerely sorry "for what has happened in the past. This is the first gesture of this kind towards the victims by the leading exponent of radical independenceism in Basque.
His words were welcomed as an important signal by members of the Spanish left and by several families of victims of the terrorist group.
Other people directly affected by the violence of the ETA and the parties of the right, on the other hand, reduce the symbolic value of Otegi's statements and consider them insufficient.
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