A BMW dealership in Spain’s northern Basque Country region has dropped an ad campaign featuring ‘Money Heist’ actress Itziar Ituño, after she took part in a protest in Bilbao on January 13 in defence of the rights of prisoners from the now-disbanded terrorist group ETA.
Ituño played the police inspector Raquel Murillo in the hit show, which began life in Spain on terrestrial TV channel Antena 3 before becoming a worldwide phenomenon when it was picked up by streaming service Netflix and redubbed ‘Money Heist’ in English. She has recently reprised the role in the show’s spinoff ‘Berlin’.
“We are not linked to any political ideology, and therefore we regret that BMW Lurauto’s image has been linked to any kind of ideological content, as we reaffirm our commitment to diversity, inclusion and respect for 100% of society,” said the dealership in a statement published on X (formerly Twitter).
Meanwhile, Spanish airline Iberia has removed a video interview with Ituño for its program ‘Talent on Board’. A spokesperson from Iberia told news agency Europa Press that there were no more plans to work with Ituño anymore, and refused to confirm to Spanish daily El Pais whether the interview had been a paid collaboration.
Ituño took part in a march on Saturday along with around 20,000 other people, according to local police, to campaign for the rights of former members of ETA who are currently serving jail terms.
Back in 2017 she took part in a similar demonstration to protest against the Spanish government’s policy of dispersing these convicts in prisons all around the country, thus keeping them far from their friends and relatives in the Basque Country.
ETA was an armed terrorist group that waged a bloody campaign for independence for the Basque Country. It existed from 1959 to 2018, during which time it killed 829 people and injured tens of thousands more. After a series of ceasefires, the group eventually disbanded altogether in April 2018.
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