He Madrid Athenaeum The figure of Gregorio Ordonez when 30 years of their murder are turned at the terrorist band ETA. The former Minister of Interior and former president of the Basque PP, Jaime Mayor Orejaand whatever his partner and now director of the CEU-CEFAS TERRORISM VICTIMS OBSERVATORY, Maria San Gilthey appeared to praise the courage and courage of Ordonez and criticize the current management of the memory of the victims and collusion of the current government with the heirs of ETA.
The event, moderated by Marcos Arbeloa On behalf of the 92 liberal group and the Legal and political Sciences section of the Athenaeum, it began with the projection of the documentary This is a real storyby Iñaki Arteta, a work that reviews the political trajectory and the legacy of Gregorio Ordóñez, a man who, according to the interveners, embodied courage and firmness against terrorism and exclusive nationalism.
Jaime Mayor Oreja, in his speech, conducted a critical analysis of the current situation, stating that, despite the dissolution of the armed band, “ETA has won”.
“We have always said that it ended with ETA, but in reality what happened was that its project was legitimized. The lie became an official story,” he said.
“All this has been done through a badly called peace or negotiation process. Actually, It was a claudication: A project to dissolve the conflict selling the idea that the murderers, the terrorists, were valid interlocutors, “said former Minister of Interior.
“ETA was not just an armed band, it was an ideology. That project is still alive,” said greater ear. The Basque expolitic denounced the “legitimation” of the political project of ETA and censored the Sánchez government for its “complicity.”
“Sincerely, I think the Basque Country is sick“He said, arguing that” when an organization like ETA has been part of a political project and today continues to occupy institutional space, that society is not healthy. “
In his opinion, “until the ETA project is morally faced, there will be no regeneration,” and warned that “it is a fact that this world will govern the Basque Country soon.”
Greater ear predicted that “we are living a very short period of calm before a new cycle. And what we will see will be the result of a serious moral crisis,” explaining that “the Basque Country, traditionally conservative and religious, embraced nationalism. And that is what explains how a society with traditional values has ended up supporting those who promote a radical project.”
“They will have to pass generations so that the Basque Country opens again. This cycle does not close yet,” he predicted.
Greater ear emphasized the need to defend the truth in the face of the “lie” that, he denounced, is gaining ground. “Many times we prefer a comfortable lie to an awkward truth. But no. What is needed more than ever is to defend the truth,” he said, claiming the figure of Gregorio Ordóñez as a “hero.”
“Some have embraced the lie to hide what was really Gregorio’s murder: a political crime,” and questioned the narrative of ETA’s defeat: “I am convinced that, if he lived, he would never have accepted that he said he has been defeated. Because he knew it was not so.”
In this sense, he insisted that “you have to look for the truth” because “the truth is at the root of the facts”, and reiterated the accusation that “A government has wanted to become an ally of terrorists. That is the truth.”
Greater ear also reflected on the need for a firm political response to what he described as a distortion of history. “The crime cannot be the solution, but the lie either,” he said, arguing that “Replacing crime with lies cannot become the reconciliation model “.
In his opinion, “what is missing today in Spain is a true alternative, a clear opposition that faces this distortion of history.”
He insisted that “what has been built on today’s lie and yesterday’s crime must be disassembled. You have to end the injustice of the lie. And for that we need something fundamental: the truth.”
He concluded underline that “only from the truth a decent society can be built. And the truth is achieved through memory. Therefore, oblivion is deeply unfair. Forgetting the victims is the most brutal way of betrayal“.
For its part, María San Gil He starred in an allegation in defense of the memory of the victims and the need to transfer to the new generations what ETA of truth was: “I do not seek that terrorists ask for forgiveness, what I want is to collaborate with justice.”
San Gil criticized the “memory manipulation” and lamented the ignorance of young people about ETA terrorism. “You talk about Miguel Ángel Blanco, Fernando Buesa, from Ortega Lara … and have no idea,” he said.
“When a victim tells his testimony, the students are absolutely impacted,” he recalled. “We tell you that, for fifty years, in the Basque Country and in the rest of Spain we live under the terror of a terrorist band and that today the political party of that band supports the president of the Government,” he said.
“The students themselves ask: ‘But how can Pedro Sánchez rely on Bildu? ‘ They do not understand. And that gives us some hope“San Gil said.” Gregorio was a reference. And our young people need examples like that, “he wanted to stand out.
“Each of us must do their part to keep the memory of the victims of terrorism alive. Here we have remembered Gregorio, but there are 853 fatal victims. And we have to remember them all, one by one. They are not numbers, they are people whose lives were truncated. Families shattered since then. And the rest of society tWe have the obligation to defend his memory, his truth and his justice “defended.
In this sense, what considers an attempt to erase the past ceased: “Today they want us to live as if ETA had not existed. That is what Pedro Sánchez intends and his surroundings. But if we live as if ETA had not existed, then the victims do not exist either.”
