On September 4, EH Bildu recorded a battery of questions in the Congress of Deputies, with a clear objective: to call into question the actions of the Civil Guard during the days prior to the passage of the Cycling Tour through Navarra. The nationalist party accused the agents of interrogating several people under “pressure and coercion”, separately and in “isolated areas”.
Some accusations that already have answers. Barely a month later, on October 8, Pedro Sánchez’s Executive responded briefly but forcefully, settling EH Bildu’s insinuations.: “The Government Delegation in Navarra has no record that, within the framework of the security operation deployed on the occasion of the passage of the Cycling Tour of Spain through the territory of the Foral Community of Navarra, disproportionate actions by the State Security Forces and Bodies that could constitute an abuse of authority”.
The Executive bluntly responds in this way to the accusations of the nationalist group that, echoing the complaints of the Roncal Valley Board, recounted several controversial episodes between the Civil Guard and the workers in the area. According to these complaints, the agents carried out identifications and questions of a personal nature with an “intimidating tone”; they uttered “verbal threats and unsubstantiated accusations” about the alleged participation of these workers in pro-Palestine protest acts; and they even warned a worker that “his car would be immobilized if he did not provide the requested information.”
Facts of which the Executive has no record, which does not hesitate to point out that “if there were any complaint in this regard, will be processed through the corresponding channels“.
“Inappropriate” interrogation of a woman
The Roncal Valley Board released a statement in which they recounted how the civil guards detained the workers, days before the Navarrese stage, and carried out “separate interrogations, in isolated areas” and under “great pressure and duress.” In the case of a woman, they added, the civil guards would have maintained “physical proximity, carrying out inappropriate questions about your private lifewhich generated a situation of discomfort and violation of their privacy, with a component clearly related to gender.”
Likewise, they reported that after being detained for an hour, the agents had let these people go, but not before capturing their ID and demanding their telephone numbers and emails.
However, as can be seen from the response of the Executive in the Lower House, none of the events reported nor their respective complaints seem to have gone further, since there is no record of them in the Delegation of the Government of Navarra.
Gone are the accusations of “excessive zeal and abuse of authority” raised by the group led by Arnaldo Otegi, as well as the “debugging of responsibilities” that the abertzales demanded from the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.