Oskar Matute (EH Bildu) condemns "with absolute forcefulness and clarity" the Bilbao disturbances and accuses the right-wing parties of seeking electoral gain with "speculations"

Oskar Matute this Tuesday rejected the disturbances and looting in Bilbao and reproached the right-wing parties for using what happened to launch insinuations and seek electoral gain while the authorship is being investigated. The EH Bildu deputy defended the peaceful mobilizations against the ultra agitator Vito Quiles and warned that violence ends up strengthening the positions that its perpetrators claim to combat.

"We reject with absolute forcefulness, with the firmest clarity, this type of vandalistic acts," he stated during his intervention in "Malas Lenguas" on TVE. Matute expressly mentioned the damages suffered by residents, merchants, and vehicle owners, as well as the attacks on urban furniture.

"Those are not ways to defend anti-fascism," he pointed out. In his opinion, those who justify these practices in the name of the fight against the far-right end up favoring what they intend to confront.

His intervention came after EH Bildu published a statement rejecting the violent and antisocial behaviors recorded on Monday. The party expressed its solidarity with those affected and defended that the response to fascism and the far-right must be developed "exclusively through peaceful and democratic means".

The altercations occurred after the mobilizations against the event announced by Quiles, which was finally canceled. The definitive balance communicated this Tuesday by the Ertzaintza is 17 arrested, ten of them minors, and one person investigated. The Basque police continue to investigate to identify more participants.

Asked about the possible presence of organized groups behind the incidents, Matute explained that he has little more than the public information provided by the Basque Government. He recalled that the motivations and identity of these groups still need to be clarified and asked for caution before attributing responsibilities.

At the same time, he praised the thousands of young people who mobilized peacefully in Bilbao. The leader described Quiles' call as "an act of evident provocation" and accused him of seeking prominence through hate speeches contrary, as he stressed, to the majority feeling of Basque society.

Matute has insisted that the rejection of the looting must be accompanied by that distinction between those who protested peacefully and those who carried out the subsequent attacks. In that context, he has criticized the statements of right-wing leaders who, in his opinion, are sliding towards "speculations and insinuations" to gain political advantage.

His harshest reference has been to Ángel Acebes and the memory of 22 years ago, an allusion to the statements of the then Minister of Interior about the authorship of 11M, when he maintained the hypothesis of ETA. Matute has considered that episode still painful for a large part of Basque society and has warned against the repetition of such attributions.

"Who benefits from this?", he then asked. In his reading, the disturbances harm left-wing forces and facilitate discourses that demand more repression and a heavy hand.

The interview has taken place amid criticism of EH Bildu for being left out of the declaration signed by PNV, PSE-EE, PP and Elkarrekin Podemos in the Bilbao City Council. That text condemned the disturbances, expressed solidarity with those affected and included a section against the shouts of "Gora ETA militarra". According to 'Cadena SER', the discrepancies focused on that point.

The coalition has set its position in its own statement, in which it has defended peaceful mobilizations and rejected acts that harm coexistence and the well-being of residents and merchants.

"The order of the factors does not alter fascism"

Matute has also responded to the pact between PP and Vox for the Senate candidacies, which includes the withdrawal of the popular party in Gipuzkoa, Girona and Tarragona and the incorporation of candidates proposed by the far-right in other PP ballots.

"The order of the factors does not alter fascism", he stated when evaluating that agreement. The deputy has accused both formations of sharing a "clear agenda of involution" which, he warned, threatens civil, political, union, social and labor rights.

In his analysis, this agenda is part of an international advance of the hardest right-wing parties. Matute alluded to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and electoral interference strategies to explain his concern about the campaign context. This is his political interpretation, while the investigation into those responsible for the altercations remains open.

The EH Bildu leader has anticipated a pre-campaign with "a lot of mud" and constant changes in the issues that concentrate public debate. "First it was Ceuta, then housing, now it's Barcelona-Bilbao and next week whatever comes up," he said.

He has also called on the left to analyze why certain messages find support among young people frustrated by their living conditions. He has placed housing, precarious jobs and the possibilities of building a dignified life among the priorities, in contrast to hard-line responses that, in his opinion, leave these problems unresolved.

Matute has reiterated EH Bildu's commitment to help prevent a PP and Vox government and has defended that this dispute be resolved "with the ballot boxes and with the votes, through democracy".