Tamás Orbán
April 27, 2026
Protesters attend a demonstration called by the Terrorism Victims Association in support of the victims of the jailed member of Basque armed group ETA, Henri Parot, in Arrasate-Mondragon on September 18, 2021.
LINO RICO / AFP
The number of ETA prisoners in Spain has fallen steadily since Pedro Sánchez came to power in 2018. ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) was a Basque separatist organisation that used armed violence and terrorism for decades in pursuit of independence for the Basque Country from Spain and France.
According to available counts, the figure has gone from around 380 inmates to just over 130 in 2025–2026. During the same period, more than 200 have left ordinary prison, either after fully serving their sentences or after gaining access to semi-release regimes or conditional release.
The trend is the result of a combination of factors. On the one hand, the natural expiry of sentences imposed during the years of the organisation’s activity. On the other hand, a prison policy that has been gradually modified in key areas such as prisoner transfers, sentence classification, and the management of prison benefits.
One of the most visible changes has been the end of dispersal—the deliberate scattering of ETA inmates across prisons in Spain rather than keeping them in facilities in or near Basque Country. Since 2018, the Ministry of the Interior has promoted the gradual transfer of ETA prisoners to penitentiary centres in the Basque Country and Navarre. This process was largely completed in 2023, bringing to an end a policy that had been in force for more than three decades.
Added to that movement was the transfer of prison powers to the Basque government, formalised in 2021. From that moment on, the autonomous administration took over the management of prisons in its territory, including decisions on grade progression—the system of classifying prisoners into different ‘degrees’ (grados) that determine their level of security and freedom—and reintegration programmes.
The combined effect of both measures has coincided with an increase in third-grade classifications and conditional releases. Data compiled by victims’ associations and various media outlets place the number of ETA prisoners who have accessed the semi-release regime since the prison transfer in the dozens. In parallel, some of those cases have later evolved into conditional release or final release.
Full release means the total completion of the sentence, while third grade allows daily outings under penitentiary supervision, and conditional release represents the final stage of the sentence, still subject to obligations and possible revocation.
Among the just over 130 prisoners who remain in penitentiary centres, a significant proportion are already in third grade or on conditional release. This means that the number of inmates in closed prison regimes is considerably lower than at the start of the period analysed.
Decisions on grade progression and the granting of penitentiary benefits are subject to judicial oversight. Penitentiary supervision judges and, in certain cases, the Audiencia Nacional—a high-level Madrid-based court with jurisdiction over major and sensitive cases affecting the entire country—can review and revoke these measures. In fact, some third-grade classifications granted in recent years have been appealed and annulled by the courts.
The government has consistently argued that the penitentiary policy is in strict compliance with the law and the principle of reintegration enshrined in the constitution. The executive insists that there have been no pardons or discretionary decisions outside the legal framework and that each case is assessed individually.
However, associations of terrorism victims and opposition parties have questioned the management of the process. They criticise the lack of transparency in some files, the pace of grade progressions and the fact that many of the prisoners who have benefited have not shown, in their view, effective repentance or cooperation with the justice system.
These criticisms have intensified in the current political context, marked by the government’s need to secure parliamentary support from different groups, including Basque nationalist and left-wing political coalition EH Bildu. The opposition has repeatedly argued that the evolution of penitentiary policy coincides with this parliamentary dependence, although the executive rejects any direct link between the two issues.
The legal framework has not changed substantially in recent years. What has changed is the management of that framework and the distribution of powers between administrations. The combination of decisions first adopted by the Ministry of the Interior and later by the Basque government partly explains the pace at which grade progressions and prison releases have taken place.
In parallel, the collective of ETA prisoners continues to shrink. The organisation announced its dissolution in 2018, and since then, the penitentiary trend has followed a downward trajectory that is expected to continue in the coming years as sentences currently served are completed.
Even so, the debate over how this process is taking place remains open. Issues such as recognition for victims, the clarification of unresolved attacks, and public welcome ceremonies for released prisoners keep public discussion alive around the end of ETA’s lifecycle, although Spanish society is increasingly less sensitive to these matters.
