FACTS

-On 17 June, 1995, a group of radicals filled the Hernani town hall council room. It was the day the new city council was being sworn in and the day Rekondo was re-elected mayor. The radicals organised a pitched battle, overturning the ballot box being used to elect the new mayor and attacking several councillors.

- In July 1995 a Molotov cocktail was thrown at his car, an attack that was repeated several times.

The first demonstrations by radicals opposite the family home were organised in late 1995 and repeated in subsequent years. For a time, these demonstrations were organised at least once a week.

-On 21 May, 1996, a group of hoodies threw stones at hime while he was walking in the street, wounding him in the head.

-On 19 November, 1996, a group of about thirty hoodies went to the Town Hall chanting “Rekondo, entzun, pim pam pum”, with the clear intention of attacking him. Rekondo locked himself in his office until the Local Police and the Ertzaintza (Basque Regional Police) enabled him to leave the Town Hall.

-He suffered endless similar situations.

CONSEQUENCES

“Many were the situations I have personally gone through, where my rights were violated, and they have been included in the book “Padre nuestro que estás en Euskadi” (“Our Father who art in the Basque Country”), by the journalist Julio Flores.  I have suffered all kinds of aggression; they have smashed my car several times, they have thrown stones at me while walking down the street wounding me in the head, they have insulted and threatened me”.

“The years when I was mayor, I mean the first two terms in the 1990s, were the most stressful in terms of living in the village. Coercion and intimidation were systematic, the MLNV legitimized coercion as a method.  The radicals were emboldened; they thought they owned the village. Groups would go out in the streets and do what they wanted; any celebration was an excuse. For example, youngsters would wear hoods and build barricades, burn cars and containers, provoke the police… There was even a time when they would walk down the street asking people to show them their identity documents. They had a tremendous capacity for harassment.  The radicals in Hernani exercised great pressure all those years and the control they had, especially over the old quarters of the town, was surprising”.

“Furthermore, there were no discordant elements among them. None of the representatives of the nationalist left at that time ever held different points of view, not even in private, on the harassment campaign they had organised in the village. None of them ever showed the slightest trace of solidarity after any of the attacks I suffered. They were against us”.

“In those years we organised a campaign in the village, Hernani Askatasuna Bizi (Living in Freedom in Hernani), to encourage people to come out into the streets to show their rejection against the attacks and the constraints and try to strengthen a position repudiating all that was happening. Few of us would go out, about 30 or 40 people. But if you extrapolate this number to a city like San Sebastian, there would have been around 300 or 400; I mean, the number of people who responded to that initiative was not so small. We were few, but we were people who were well-known in the village, people with great courage, some were even shop owners… in short, neighbours wanting to cope with that situation of harassment”.

“In addition, an atmosphere of solidarity arose among members of the City Council who were under threat and coercion from the violent element in the town. PNV, PSE-EE, PP and us (EA). All political groups supported us in this aspect; in defence of coexistence and democracy, and there was a feeling of solidarity among us. I’ve always felt the support and encouragement of my family, of course, and of my friends and colleagues, but also of members of other political groups. I can say that I have not felt that loneliness that other people who have gone through violent situations may have felt. Quite the contrary. My inner circle showed me great affection in those difficult and stressful times”.

“The radicals would stand opposite us when we were demonstrating against ETA. On occasion, when the police were not present, they attacked us. In those days, their intention was “Euskal Herria Askatu” (free the Basque Country). It was the time between the kidnapping of Aldaya and Ortega Lara, and the radicals were trying to counteract the efforts of peace organisations and other social campaigners that were trying to promote social  rejection against those kidnappings. They needed to weaken that social response to ETA, which was growing. We would organise our demonstrations and they would organise theirs, outnumbering us by three or four to one”.

“As for the social response to terrorism in Hernani, its evolution on the streets has been minimal. Public opinion in general has certainly changed, but there have been no changes that have been expressed by means of demonstrations in the street. It is still difficult to see people showing a forceful and explicit attitude against ETA. On the other hand, I must say that ETA’s current cease-fire has led to a decrease in stress levels and to the fact that people are no longer organising demonstrations. I remember the most important demonstration in Hernani against ETA, which was when they killed Miguel Angel Blanco in 1997. And I am talking of a demonstration of about 300 or 400 people, no more, nor less. We must bear in mind that at that time Hernani was the “capital”, the symbol, the most important town for the nationalist left”.

“But, as I mentioned before, I think the evolution of the mobilization against ETA has slowed down. As ETA has interrupted its activities and no longer represents an active threat, if you call a demonstration against ETA, it would not be very large. People do not perceive the need to demonstrate. In any case, I believe that, today, public opinion, not necessarily expressed in the street, does display a clearer and firmer rejection of ETA “.

“As for coexistence in Hernani, I must say that there were times when some villagers asked me for help. They were people who felt threatened by the harassment of the radicals. But really, what can you do against this? The Regional Department of the Interior can provide security, but you can’t assign a police escort to everyone. In addition, fear does not end there, it continues to be present. As Mayor, I was aware that people were afraid and the people would tell me. My reaction, my public discourse, was greatly influenced by these circumstances”.

“As I said before, the pressure in Hernani was huge, and there were shop owners who even left the town. These were the blue ribbon years and very few dared wear it. But it was also the case that, in the polls, the votes did not reflect that hegemony of the nationalist left. Because we must also remember that when we’re talking about Hernani, we are mainly talking of the old quarters, around the “herriko” taverns, which was the “liberated are”, the bastion of the nationalist left in Hernani. From there, they exerted all their power. But, as I said, after an election you realize that that control they were trying to exercise in the street was not real”.

“Relations with the representatives of the nationalist left in Hernani, those who have ruled the City when we were not in power, have always been very cold and distant.”

“As for the task of de-legitimization violence in this new political momentum, when the left-wing nationalists are once again taking part in the institutions, the first thing I have to say is that left-wing nationalists are not taking part in this effort. After hearing their discourse, I think Bildu, or the nationalist left rather than Bildu, does not want to condemn history, to criticise their past; I am concerned that they do not want to change their political discourse that states that all these years of violence have been a period that had to happen, and that the current situation is not a break with the above but a continuity, a new phase, achieved thanks to the previous stages. This is what the internal documents of this organisation say”.

“In any case, I think that ETA will remain where it is, on standby, because they have no intention of disarming and disbanding. They will try to remain as observers, as the factual guarantor of any changes that take place in the political sphere. In my opinion, the fact that they have not announced their dissolution indicates that if political progress does not take place as they expect, they would be willing to take up arms again. I understand that if people voted for Bildu in the May elections, it was mainly because they thought that voting for Bildu would bring peace. And this raises a very devilish question. In the end, what this idea implies is that the political strength of the nationalist left is necessary to maintain peace. This is to accept a kind of political blackmail. The government’s ‘polls or bombs’ approach has led to the same framework. The responsibility for ending ETA lies with left-wing nationalism.  No wonder that a major sector of Gipuzkoa society has understood this. And, in my view, this is a very complicated situation with a complicated solution. And I fear, or rather I feel angry, that the message they are trying to convey is that peace is linked to the political strength of the nationalist left.  I think we have to change that approach.

I think we should continue the battle to discredit ETA. Do we have to ask the left-wing nationalists to require ETA to disband? Well, I think that we should not be giving left-wing nationalists such a say in solving the problem. If the nationalist left is seen as the party that brought peace, in the end they will be seen as the upholders of peace.  And the truth is that in a context where violence ends under those premises, with the nationalist left in the position I have just described, they will not see the need to reconsider their past and their history. And if they don’t, if the nationalist left does not say that the violence that has been exercised is illegitimate, violence may return in the future at the hands of future generations or of other social sectors.  In my opinion, it is not that we should be asking the nationalist left to provide the end of ETA. What we should be demanding from the nationalist left is that they reconsider their position in relation to terrorism. We should ask them to review their past if we want to advance in the de-legitimization of terrorism”.