In a private meeting with real-estate agents, the Mayor of Sestao, Josu Bergara (PNV) said that he was fed up with “shitty” immigrants and that he would personally make sure that they left, “beating the crap out of them, naturally.”

The trouble is that somebody filmed the meeting without his knowledge and sat on it for a year. Then it appeared on the Internet.

The Spokesman for the Regional Basque Government, Josu Erkoreka, said that he was surprised by the statement and had asked the Mayor to clarify his words.

Basically, immigrants from Romania and North Africa were finding it almost impossible to empadronarse; i.e. register on the municipal records, which, amongst other things, would then allow their children to attend school.

The Mayor in the meantime, had said that he was only referring to those carrying out criminal activity and that this form of expressing himself was not “his habitual way of confronting political difficulties.”

The Head of the Basque Board for Employment and Social Policies, said at a press conference in Bilbao that the Mayor had recognized that his words were “not the most adequate,” but added that “one gets the impression that the recording was carried out in “not very legal terms.”

The Basque socialists have demanded a public rectification from the Mayor for the “intolerable and xenophobic” racist comments.

On a closing note, one of the real-estate agents at the meeting pointed out that if they did not rent properties to immigrants it would be breaking the law, to which the Mayor responded, “I break the law everyday.”

(News: Basque Lands, Spain)