A few weeks ago, Mikel Garikoitz, alias Txeroki, former military leader of ETA, was released from Martutene prison under a semi-liberty regime. He has served seventeen years of his four hundred-year sentence. He leaves the prison to work and perform volunteer tasks, as stipulated by the court. Ana Rosa's program They wasted no time waiting for him at the door and pushing him to see where he was going. Manu Marlasca, the expert contributor on current events and other sordid topics, commented on it sarcastically:Oh! Surprise! Seventeen years later he enjoys a semi-freedom regime that has come, logically, when the Basque government takes charge of this type of consequence"And, irritated, he asked the editor if they had seen him work:"Have you seen him work hard? Are his hands calloused and worn out from working?"They insisted on the myth of the ETA members' high life. Ana Rosa Quintana lamented the difficulties in keeping up with it:"He is protected, unlike the raped woman."He was referring to the victim from a previous news story."The reporter excitedly recounted his pursuit. The chaotic images recorded on the street with the camera on his shoulder incorporated the delirious questions he asked Txeroki:Do you even like democracy at all? With all the victims you had when you were the head of ETA, you don't even have the courage to say anything?"The journalist claimed that the men accompanying him were..."people from the Basque nationalist environment"And he reproached them for going with him:"You're always with Txeroki, huh? Always warning him!"During a car chase on the highway, he ventured to claim that the protagonist"He moves the same way he did when he was the head of the terrorist group: he makes double turns around roundabouts, takes several directions, and when he arrives at his destination he changes cars."While pursuing him, the questions he asked him encompassed all the journalistic clichés of the anti-ETA jargon:"Do you regret what you did during your years as head of ETA?", "Was it worth it?", "What are you doing outside of prison? Aren't you saying anything to the victims?", "Do you condemn violence or not? Or is all this nonsense?"The editor criticized him for his cold attitude, for not looking him in the eye, and for refusing to speak into his microphone. All of Quintana's colleagues, fascinated by the reporter's boldness, congratulated him on his work. It was paradoxical how much they disdained him and, at the same time, how they regretted not being able to talk to him:"They were brave, even when they killed innocent people at their jobs..."The presenter criticized, reproaching him for his cowardice in not showing his face. It's grotesque that these presenters, who in the past lamented the dialogue with ETA to achieve peace, now need to bring these figures back into the media spotlight, have them exclusively, put a microphone in front of them, and get statements from them, even encouraging them to address their victims. The worst part is imagining what they would do if they got any response."

ETA dissolved in April 2018, eight years ago, and had abandoned armed activity in October 2011, fourteen years ago. Fortunately, it's history. But for the Spanish right, it remains the last resort when sensible and reasonable arguments run out. It doesn't matter that the violence of the terrorist group is a thing of the past and that Basque society, and Spanish society as well, have turned the page. But in the mental universe of the right, increasingly veering towards the extreme, it remains a recurring weapon. Will this unpleasant game ever end? And, turning to another issue, less scandalous but politically just as, if not more, profitable, will the trump card of the most primitive, simplistic, and demagogic anti-Catalanism ever disappear?

Although ETA has been dead for fourteen years, the Community of Madrid has begun offering workshops on ETA for students in the fourth year of compulsory secondary education and high school in 22 public schools. Under the name Past and present of ETA terrorism: the testimony of young people and organized by the General Directorate of Youth, their objective is for the new generations to learn about Spain's recent history and grow up committed to the values of "democracy, the rule of law, the delegitimization of terrorism, and respect for the victims," but without including in these workshops those who suffered violence from the GAL and others.

Pedro J. Ramírez (Logroño, 1952) is one of the most influential Spanish journalists of the democratic period and also one of the most controversial. He has now published his second volume of memoirs (You can tell the truth, Planeta), where he defends decisions as controversial as his covers with false accusations against pro-independence leaders.

In the historic district of San Sebastián (Alde Zaharra or Lo Viejo, as it is known) is the restaurant La Cepa, where it is likely that the journalists accredited to the San Sebastián Festival have dined at some point because the food is good, it has a good quality/price ratio and it is not far from the Teatro Principal, where the press screenings are held. But surely more than one of you discovered this Wednesday at the screening ofA ghost in battle La Cepa is also where San Sebastián City Councillor Gregorio Ordóñez was eating when ETA shot him in the head in 1995.

The Valencian journalist Sergi Moyano (Carcaixent, 2000) publishes Operation Apollo. The kidnapping of Luis Suñer by the political-military ETA with the support of the Union of Valencian Journalists and the Alfons el Magnànim Institution. The work reconstructs the kidnapping of the Alzira businessman on January 13, 1981, and reveals previously unknown details, such as the participation of Valencian citizens in the operation.

Wednesday will mark 10 years since ETA laid down its arms. The nightmare of terrorist violence came to an end after 864 deaths and more than 3,000 attacks. Five decades of pain, most of it in democracy. Five decades of harsh social and ideological fracture in the Basque Country. The process of deactivating the terrorist group was slow, with many ups and downs, including the State's dirty war through death squads. It took a long time, but finally the nationalist left took the step, with Arnaldo Otegi, from prison, as a key figure in giving up violence and adopting the peaceful and democratic way. This Monday, Otegi, coinciding with this tenth anniversary, wanted to solemnise the anniversary with a new gesture of recognition towards the victims, which is also a self-criticism of historical importance: "We feel their pain: it should never have taken place". With these words, the historic Basque leader deepens the pro-independence Basque left mea culpa.