The discrepancies between PP and PSOE cloud the tribute to Miguel Ángel Blanco

Facade of the Ermua Town Hall with the photographs of Miguel Ángel Blanco, assassinated by ETA in 1997, and Sotero Mazo, assassinated in 1980. Javier Zorrilla (EFE)

The political and social unity brought about by what became known as

the civic movement that emerged spontaneously in Spanish society in response to the kidnapping and murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco, will be very difficult to repeat on the 25th anniversary of the death of the councilor of the PP.

The discrepancies between the main parties over the government's pacts with EH Bildu in Congress threaten to cloud and tarnish the tribute to Blanco, whom ETA killed on July 12, 1997, at the age of 29, with two shots to the head.

The murder occurred just 10 days after the release by the Civil Guard of prison officer José Antonio Ortega Lara after 532 days in captivity.

“It has to be an act of unity.

Using it to confront, using it to divide, would be the worst example that we could transfer to the citizens of our country.

Patxi López, current secretary of Democratic Memory and Laicity of the PSOE leadership

, said in a message for harmony .

The PP leader—currently a deputy in the Madrid Assembly—will finally be able to speak in memory of her brother.

Government sources stress that they "totally" support the participation of Marimar Blanco and that this was transmitted to him from Pedro Sánchez's cabinet as soon as they were aware of the decision of the socialist councilor to prevent his intervention.

Mari Mar Blanco, president of the Miguel Ángel Blanco Foundation, had sent a letter to the councilor asking him to reconsider her decision not to let her speak, with a copy to the President of the Government and the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu.

Government sources stress that they "totally" support Marimar Blanco's participation and that this was transmitted to him from Pedro Sánchez's cabinet as soon as they were aware of the socialist councilor's decision to prevent his intervention.

Mari Mar Blanco, president of the Miguel Ángel Blanco Foundation, had sent a letter to the councilor asking him to reconsider her decision not to let her speak, with a copy to the President of the Government and the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu.

Government sources stress that they "totally" support Marimar Blanco's participation and that this was transmitted to him from Pedro Sánchez's cabinet as soon as they were aware of the socialist councilor's decision to prevent his intervention.

Mari Mar Blanco, president of the Miguel Ángel Blanco Foundation, had sent a letter to the councilor asking him to reconsider her decision not to let her speak, with a copy to the President of the Government and the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu.

The Victims of Terrorism Association (AVT) and Dignity and Justice (DyJ) will also not attend the event due to their rejection of the government's prison policy and its agreements with the nationalist left

Sunday's homage at the Ermua sports center —which bears the name of Miguel Ángel Blanco— will be presided over by Felipe VI.

In addition to the King, Sánchez and Urkullu will also intervene

The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has confirmed his attendance, as well as the president of Ciudadanos, Inés Arrimadas;

the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska;

the delegate of the Government in the Basque Country, Denis Itxaso;

and Patxi Lopez.

“We are not going to go because the President of the Government will be there.

You cannot be on the one hand bringing the murderer of Miguel Ángel Blanco closer [to the prisons of the Basque Country] and on the other hand presiding over an act in homage to the victims of terrorism.

I am not going to be humiliated or laughed at ”, Maite Araluce, president of the AVT, has justified.

The position of the Collective of Victims of Terrorism (Covite) is very different.

“That macabre countdown that fell on the life of Miguel Ángel Blanco [ETA gave 48 hours for the Government to end the policy of dispersing ETA prisoners] mobilized millions of citizens against ETA and marked a turning point in the citizen response to terrorism.

Those unforgettable days are part of our collective memory as a country and it is very necessary to remember and honor them in an act of State”, considers Consuelo Ordóñez, president of Covite.

The association's representative for Sunday's tribute will be José María Lobato, wounded in an ETA attack in 1997 and a member of the board of directors.

Aznar will attend this Saturday the act that the PP has organized in Ermua in memory of the councilor who was a victim of terrorism.

The former president will intervene together with Feijóo.

Marimar Blanco will close the tribute.

“The presidents give that protagonism to the same Marimar to whom the socialist mayor of Ermua, first, denied him the power to pronounce a few words in memory of his brother and, later, asked him to see his speech beforehand.

Prior censorship has no place in a society that has already cried out too many times for a freedom that was systematically denied to citizens in the Basque Country”, say PP sources.

An empty chair will preside over the homage to the murdered politician, "who ended up being a symbol of a country that revolted against the barbarities of ETA," the same sources point out.

Concentration before Congress

Some 200 people, including officials from the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos, have gathered this Friday before Congress in memory of Miguel Ángel Blanco and to show their opposition to the Democratic Memory Law.

Ortega Lara, who has read together with the former president of the Basque PP, María San Gil, has affirmed: "The assassins govern Spain in an increasingly less hidden way and are preparing to assault the Government of the Basque Country in broad daylight" .

The NEOS platform, promoted by Jaime Mayor Oreja, former Minister of the Interior of the PP, has organized the call, which has been approached by the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal.

An almost empty Congress honored the victims of terrorism at the end of June.

The PP leadership was absent and Vox went to the door of the Cortes to protest at the presence of EH Bildu, who has been participating in this type of tribute since 2019.

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