Demonstrations, Social Response and “Ermua Spirit”

Euskaraz irakurri: Euskal gizarteak ETAri ‘aski da’ esan zionekoa

The slow-motion murder of the PP councilor in Ermua Michelangelo White by ETA 25 years ago was now a shock group that shocked Basque society and planted the seeds of definitive social delegitimization of terrorism

Miguel Ángel, 29, was unknown to the public, a young councilor with no great political ambitions who was convinced by friends to join the PP, a normal, lifelong boy, and so society lived with him from the first moment along.

In addition, the extra cruelty shown by ETA by placing a day and time limit on the young man’s life had a fizzing effect on the conscience. That death sentence, carried out 48 hours after the kidnapping, was the straw that broke the camel’s back after years of accumulated fatigue, and Basque society stood up to mass terrorism.

Thus, the crime unleashed a wave of outrage and anger never seen before, a civil revolt against ETA later known as the “Ermua Spirit” whose success lay precisely in its explosive spontaneity without acronyms or political flags.

Perhaps aware of that lost social pulse, or perhaps due to other factors, ETA has never committed another kidnapping, although its terrorist activity continued for another 14 years, during which 67 people were murdered.

First manifestations: from anesthesia to hope

The demonstrations to demand the release of Miguel Ángel started on July 10, 1997, a few hours after ETA claimed responsibility for the kidnapping by calling on the radio station Egin Irratia and announcing its blackmail: the mayor would be killed if the government of Spain did not. take all prisoners to Basque prisons within 48 hours.

The social reaction was immediate, with a first mass demonstration organized that same afternoon in Ermua by the mayor, Carlos Totorika (PSE-EE), and announced street by street by the municipal police with megaphone in hand. This slowness of social protest did not stop in the following days and the mobilizations were constant morning, noon and even night, with candlelit night vigils.

The culmination of these protests took place in Bilbao, at noon on Saturday, July 12, 1997, a few hours after the end of ETA’s ultimatum, when more than half a million people took to the streets in a city of just over 340,000 inhabitants. It was and still is the most massive demonstration in the history of Euskal Herria

That march had a large political and institutional representation of the highest level. In attendance were the Lehendakari, José Antonio Ardanza; the President of the Government of Spain, José María Aznar; and the then Prince Felipe de Borbón.

At the end of the demonstration, Miguel ngel’s sister, Mari Mar Blanco, took the floor to address both the Aznar Executive and ETA: “We say to the government and to the people holding my brother that everything in this life can be solved with flexibility in reasoning”.

These mass mobilizations fueled a flame of hope and the feeling began to sink in that this unparalleled social response would cause ETA to rethink. How to ignore this cry?

Michelangelo is assassinated: from hope to uncontrollable rage

The clocks struck 4pm, the time for ETA’s ultimatum to expire, and hopes turned to disappointment and uncontrollable anger 40 minutes later, when a dying Miguel Ángel Blanco was found shot to death in a mountainous area of ​​Lasarte. The outcome that nobody wanted to believe, ETA ignored the Basque people and fired two shots in the head at the young man from Ermua, who died the next day in hospital after 12 hours of excruciating pain.

Twenty minutes after the young man’s discovery, around 5:00 p.m. on that July 12 in Ermua, Mayor Totorika announced in the town square what no one wanted to hear: ‘Michelangelo was murdered’, although it still retained a weak thread of life at those times. The neighbors screamed in pain.

The anger caught on in that city, but quickly spread to other cities and protests reached Herri Batasuna’s headquarters. These protests left a historic picture: six ertzainas guarding HB headquarters in Donostia-San Sebastián from an angry mob they took off their helmets and verduguillo, who first showed himself with his face uncovered. Several people came to them to hug them.

Meanwhile, in Ermua, HB headquarters set on fire and Mayor Totorika came to extinguish the flames, fire extinguisher in hand.

Totorika extinguishes a fire at HB headquarters in Ermua

The public anger was not only against ETA itself, but also against its sympathizers. In this sense, during a demonstration in Madrid on July 14, journalist Victoria Prego proclaimed: “With peace and with words, but also with the law: Go for them!”

There are also other images from that time that have gone down in history such as the white hands, the blue ribbons, the “ETA, shoot, here is my neck” or the young men hanging the red handkerchief after the hanging of the Sanfermines.

In the political context, the following years, after several years of tension, brought an end to the Pact of Ajuria Eneawhich encompassed the anti-terrorist parties, and the birth of the Lizarra pactwhich brought together the sovereign forces. They were also years of political attempts to overwhelm the “Ermua spirit”, of maneuvers to equate terrorism with Basque nationalism and of clashes between blocs in Euskadi.

The kidnapping and murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco did not immediately end the violence, but changed Basque society forever.