The riots in Azpeitia and Vitoria have sparked a debate about the police model: EH Bildu and PP have opposing views

EH Bildu has today called for "a thorough review and reform of the police model" following recent interventions by the Ertzaintza in Azpeitia and Vitoria , which, in his view, have not been "proportionate and appropriate to prevent further damage."

In a statement, EH Bildu has stated that the actions of the Ertzaintza in last Sunday's riots in Azpeitia (Gipuzkoa) eta in the Alavesa capital "have revealed a model that deviates from the democratic principles that should guide its work".

The sovereign coalition has stated that , in Azpeitia, the Ertzaintza "entered early in the morning into a festive enclosure that was covered by a pen painting and caused serious clashes", while in Vitoria "charged violently against an unreported peaceful camping in the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca, involving people of all ages ".

"These two interventions have been absolutely disproportionate and therefore unacceptable," EH Bildu stressed, according towhich "this is not the police model that Basque society wanted after Francoism," because he called for "a democratic, civil and in the service of the community, not to repeat the authoritarian logic of the past," he added.

This political force considers thisto be a "structural problem", as other interventions show, "the loss of a testicle in April by a young man, the assaulton a Royal fan in Anoeta in March last year, the serious injuries inflicted on an eye by a young man a month earlier in Toulouse, or the threatsmade against the government by the Ertzainak Borrokan collective ".

"Even the Basque Government has acknowledged that there are sometimes interventions that are unacceptable and that, with it, there is this problem," stressed EH Bildu, who said that Basque society "deserves a police force that respects rights, acts responsibly and resolves problems and conflicts without making them worse."

A very different view is held by thepresident of the Basque PP, Javier de Andres , who believes that there is a problem with the "radical left" which, "in addition to not knowing how to confront the PNV, is feeding and encouraging".

"We are concerned about the general climate that is being created throughout Euskal Herria, with attacks on the Ertzaintza and local police," he said.

De Andrés has stated that "there seems to have been an increase in a phenomenon that has occurred on other occasions" and believes that the PNV has "something to say" and "responsibility" in what is happening.

He has accused lehendakari Imanol Pradales of "lying" when the Basque president says that the violent and those who try to discredit the Ertzaintza will always have the Basque Government in front of them "because they agree with a political force that does not condemn these attacks in the Basque Country", referring to EH Bildu.

He has stated that EH Bildu's "historical constant" is "not to condemn any kind of aggression, especially those committed against the Ertzaintza, when such attacks come from eye agents."

"We have long had a problem with the radical left, which creates tensions in coexistence," and "is led by a growing party,"among others, because of "political opportunism." "All political forces have normalized EH Bildu," he has denounced, and the PNV and the Socialist Party are "responsible."