FUNDACIÓN VÍCTIMAS DEL TERRORISMO 94 - ENGLISH

57 while the PSOE, PNV and EH Bildu vot- ed against. The initiative, the seventh bill the PP has introduced in the Senate on terrorism and victims, proposes adding a new section to the current law specifically devoted to the prevention and administrative pun- ishment of such conduct. The measures under consideration include fines ranging from 200 to 150,000 euros, along with additional penalties such as disqualifica- tion from holding public office or receiv- ing public subsidies for periods of one to five years, depending on the seriousness of the offense. A DEBATE FRAMED BY MEMORY AND THE DIGNITY OF VICTIMS The debate intensified after Socialist sen- ator Julia María Liberal described the proposal as “ineffective” and “redundant” in light of the Criminal Code, accusing the PP of creating “noise and confronta- tion” and saying that “a dead ETA from 2011 cannot be paraded around.” Those remarks prompted a forceful re- sponse from UPN senator María del Mar Caballero, daughter of Tomás Caballero, a Pamplona city councilor murdered by ETA in 1998. Caballero, who is also a councilor at Pamplona City Council and a trustee of the foundation that bears her father’s name, used her speech to de- nounce what she described as the contin- uing existence of public acts that amount to an ongoing humiliation of victims of terrorism. “Who is parading ETA around?” she asked, visibly moved, as she held up a re- cent image from a popular race in which a child was carrying a photograph of a terrorist. “This happened in our streets. This is a child with the photo of the mur- derer who killed my father. This is what parading ETA around looks like. It is not us doing it.” María Caballero said such acts are not isolated incidents but a reality that has been repeated for more than 20 years in Navarre and the Basque Country. She also criticized the idea that victims should respond with resignation and silence. “What do they propose for victims? Noth- ing. That we put up with it, stay at home that day and suffer,” she said. The senator argued that effective mech- anisms are needed to prevent the nor- malization of tributes to murderers and to protect the memory of those who lost their lives to terrorism. “We are not go- ing to normalize what is not normal. The memory of my father, a good and hard- working man, cannot be paraded through the streets in front of a child,” she said. ANOTHER STEP IN DEFENSE OF VICTIMS During the debate, PP senator Mar Cotelo introduced the bill, stressing the need to “close the gaps” that allow for the public humiliation of victims and calling for a “consistent and steadfast” defense of their memory and dignity. The Senate’s decision to take up the bill now opens the parliamentary process for committee debate and further considera- tion. For victims’ associations and for or- ganizations such as the Tomás Caballero Foundation, the April 8 session was an- other reminder that memory, justice and the dignity of victims remain unfinished business, and that coexistence cannot be built on forgetting or impunity. As María Caballero said in her closing re- marks, “If asking for action means making noise, then we are going to make a lot of noise, every single day. We owe them that.” ASSOCIATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS