EH Bildu intends to open a “national debate”, in the words of its leader, Arnaldo Otegi, on the role of Basque television and Basque culture after the persecution that has fueled against the ETB-2 presenter Valeria Ros. Otegi, the former member of ETA who in 1979 kidnapped the manager of Michelin from Vitoria Luis Abaitua, now politically fuels the accusation on social networks of the comedian, presenter of the Akelarre program.
The Abertzale left feeds the comments that disqualify her as “posh”, point out her for not speaking Basque when it was already compulsory to learn it in schools and accuse her of “ridiculing” Basque culture “from a Spanish perspective”. Last Wednesday, a message on Twitter from the ETB journalist and bertsolari Xabier Euzkitxe became the thread followed by thousands of critics of the program, presented by Basque comedians Valeria Ros and Pablo Ibarburu.
Euzkitze, a commentator on Basque pelota matches on the Basque public television channel, opened friendly fire “without wishing to hurt”, but his comments on the social network became the dialectical ammunition that EH Bildu needed to point out the general director of EiTB, Andoni Aldekoa, with a parliamentary initiative presented by the deputy Jasone Agirre, representative in the Basque Chamber and journalist on leave of absence from the Basque public television.
“Doesn’t the director think that thousands of viewers could be offended by the focus offered by the Akelarre program on the Basque Country and its culture?” Agirre included in the questions that Aldekoa will have to answer, although the answers were already part of the argument with which EH Bildu and thousands of his followers have felt “offended” since last January 12 they analyzed in great detail the interviews that Valeria Ros performs every Thursday and for an hour and a half to guests about whom she does not know their identity and who They are introduced to him by his partner Pablo Ibarburu, another Basque humorist far removed from the cultural ties established by nationalism.
“The Spanish perspective” denounced by EH Bildu de Akelarre turns into attacks on Basque culture that Ros confused a recorded irrintzi (ancestral Basque cry) with some fake laughter, questioned whether the txapela of the pelota mano champion Martínez de Irujo was sexy, laugh at an imitation of the actress Silvia Abril about how Basque grandmothers speak Basque or ask the writer Unai Elorriaga if he had won any literature prize.
But while the “national debate” on the Basque television that Arnaldo Otegi wants is heating up, Valeria López-Tapia (Valeria Ros is her stage name) and her partner Pablo Ibarburu will have to face the next seven programs contracted under the magnifying glass of the abertzale left .
In the midst of the controversy, Ros dared to kick his feet with Adriana Bilbao, granddaughter of the Athletic player Telmo Zarra, in the program broadcast last Thursday, one day after the controversy broke out. “Trying to get canceled doesn’t matter to me, but you will never be more Basque than a posh from Getxo,” warned Valeria Ros on her social networks as the only response to the attacks received.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project