In a joint statement, victims of ETA demand that PP and Vox stop using the slogan ‘Que te vote Txapote’

They insist in the statement on what Consuelo Ordónez has been denouncing all these days in the sense that “it is very painful for many victims”, that the murderer of their relatives is part of an electoral slogan. But in addition, they consider that “it does nothing to help the task of delegitimizing terrorism for which we work every day from Covite the Fernando Buesa Foundation.”

Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, alias ‘Txapote’, “is the murderer of dozens of people”, they remember. “That the families of his victims have to listen to his name in a motto that undermines what the murder of his relatives meant is unworthy and cruel, for which we ask, once again, the political class and the citizenry to stop use it” they point out.

“We ask for respect for the memory of our relatives, as well as for the plurality and diversity of the group of victims” and demand that “no political party assume our representation.” “The partisan use of the memory of terrorism goes in the opposite direction of consideration for the dignity of the victims, whose pluralism is inscribed in the universality of their condition as such,” they point out.

The victims consider that this is “a difficult moment for the memory of the past of terrorism” once ETA has disappeared. “The temptation to forget and to turn the page without having addressed the pending task of the ethical, social and political delegitimization of ETA is very great”, they affirm. “If, at this very delicate moment, flawed slogans are used, such as the slogan in question, there is a risk of contributing to the distortion and disaffection of that necessary memory for the delegitimization of terrorism from a broad social consensus.”

The fact that in the face-to-face debate between Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo last Monday, the president of the PP did not condemn the use of the slogan that is spreading among its militants, with t-shirts and billboards included, despite the direct location de Sánchez to do so, has united the victims in outrage over the use of their pain that they consider partisan. Until now the messages of some members of the PP have tried to show that the criticisms were a personal matter of Ordóñez with the PP. For this reason, the statement is signed by 21 victims of ETA who also want to show their indignation at the “trivialization of terrorism” through this slogan.

Party members, businessmen, journalists or security forces

Among the victims who sign the document are victims of ETA related to parties that suffered harassment by terrorists, such as the PP or the PSOE, but also journalists, businessmen or members of the State Security forces, on a list that is open to new accessions. They are Pablo Romero Martínez, son of Juan Romero Álvarez, assassinated by ETA in 1993; Francisco Zaragoza, president of the Association of State Security Corps and Forces Victims of Terrorism and wounded in an ETA attack in 1988; Sandra Carrasco, daughter of Isaías Carrasco, assassinated by ETA in 2008; Mikel Iruretagoyena, son of José Ignacio Iruretagoyena, assassinated by ETA in 1998; Gorka Landaburu, injured in an ETA attack in 2001; Naiara Zamarreño, daughter of Manuel Zamarreño, assassinated by ETA in 1998; Iñaki García Arrizabalaga, son of Juan Manuel García Cordero, assassinated by the CAA (Autonomous Anticapitalist Commandos) – a split from ETA – in 1980; Barbara Durkhop, widow of Enrique Casas, assassinated by the CAA in 1984; Josu Elespe, son of Froilán Elespe, assassinated by ETA in 2001; Ivan Ramos Torrano, son of María Teresa Torrano, assassinated by ETA in 1987; Miguel Ángel Díez Ferreira, son of Isidoro Díez Ratón, assassinated by ETA in 1985; Rafael Olaziregi Borda and Miren Edurne Albizu, brother and sister-in-law of Eugenio Olaziregi Borda, assassinated by ETA in 1997; Nerea Barrios Cuevas, daughter of José Luis Barrios Capetillo, assassinated by ETA in 1988; Juan Carlos Ábalos Bofill, son of Jesús Ábalos, assassinated by ETA in 1979; Rubén Múgica, son of Fernando Múgica Herzog, assassinated by ETA in 1996; Alberto Muñagorri, wounded by an ETA attack in 1982; Jaime Arrese Araolaza, son of Jaime Arrese, assassinated by ETA in 1980; José María Lobato, wounded in an ETA attack in 1997; José Miguel Gómez Elosegui, brother of Francisco Javier Gómez Elósegui, assassinated by ETA in 1997; and Andoitz and Ibai Korta Zearreta, sons of Joxe Mari Korta, assassinated by ETA in 2000.

Until now, the only voice within the PP that has openly positioned itself against the slogan has been the spokesman for the PP Borja Sémper. “It is wrong. There are phrases that can be useful but do not reflect the position that we should have”, he pointed out in an interview on the Ser chain. But even María San Gil, former president of the Basque PP, who was a close collaborator of Gregorio Ordóñez and who shared a table with him the Donostia bar in which the popular politician was shot by ‘Txapote’ has considered that it is a “great slogan”. “Maybe it’s frivolous, but I think it’s so graphic, direct and forceful that there are phrases that you have to keep repeating.”

The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso used this message in a debate in the regional Parliament and the leader of Vox Santiago Abascal uses it regularly in interventions in his electoral acts. There is even a businessman from Madrid who wants to patent the phrase as a trademark. In the electoral debate on Monday, Núñez Feijóo did not want to refer to the slogan or condemn it.