The PP is aware that the repeal of the autonomous memory laws and their replacement by the so-called “concord” laws has been perceived as a victory for Vox. This is acknowledged by some of the regional leaders of the Popular Party, although they recall that, in reality, the idea was born in the PP during the time of Pablo Casado, who was the first to defend that the current legislation should be replaced by another under the name of “concord”. The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, had also committed himself during the general election campaign to repeal the state democratic memory law. But this approach was one thing and the implementation of these initiatives in the communities governed by the PP and Vox, where the ultras left their mark, was another: the approved texts, which the UN questioned in a report last May, avoid naming or condemning Francoism. Consequently, once freed from the shackles of Vox, which broke all governments with the PP on July 11, the popular barons change their pace and are open to modifying these laws, if not directly desisting from approving them.
The governments of Extremadura, the Valencian Community and Castile and León are willing to alter their plans regarding this new legislation, with different scope, as confirmed by sources from the three autonomous governments to EL PAÍS. These cabinets are also closely monitoring the decision adopted by the Constitutional Court on the appeal filed by the Government of Pedro Sánchez against the repeal of the Law of Memory of Aragon, because the court of guarantees will have the final say.
Aragon is the only autonomous region that launched this process against the memory laws that has no changes planned. The Aragonese government approved a law to repeal the previous one, but it has not proposed a new law, but rather a plan. “The Government of Aragon has done what the Popular Party said had to be done, we presented ourselves in the elections saying what we would do with the Memory Law and that is what we have done,” argued President Jorge Azcón in an interview in EL PAÍS. But his colleagues do have other plans.
Following the break-up of Vox, María Guardiola’s Government in Extremadura is giving up on repealing the autonomous memory regulation approved by the PSOE in 2018. “At this time, it is not a priority for the Government of the Junta de Extremadura to develop and approve a new law in this area,” confirm sources from the Extremadura Executive. “It was one of the 60 points included in the agreement with Vox,” these sources recall, adding that it was the ultras who “unilaterally broke” this pact “due to a migration management issue that was not in the Extremadura agreement.”
Point 48 of the PP and Vox agreement to invest Guardiola said: “Both formations undertake to promote a new Extremadura law that serves reconciliation and real harmony, and that repeals the Law of Historical and Democratic Memory of Extremadura approved in 2018.”
Guardiola, on the other hand, is betting on annulling this pact with the ultras and maintaining and complying with the current law. “We are applying the current legislation, and we are going to continue working for the memory of the people who were murdered for their ideas or for their political ties,” say sources from the Government of Extremadura. “We must do it seriously and without arbitrariness, so that those people from Extremadura who are looking for their relatives can do so with dignity.”
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The Extremadura Executive admits that its decision is related to the division caused by the attempt to end the current regulations. “We believe it is essential not to create tension or engage in political opportunism with such sensitive issues,” the Guardiola Government emphasizes. “Everything can be improved, of course. We can continue to advance within a framework of reconciliation, peace and coexistence that takes everyone into account. We must seek consensus instead of labels and sides. The democratic transition had that spirit, and key steps were taken towards understanding.”
The Valencian Community Government, headed by Carlos Mazón, is in a different situation, because it has already approved the so-called Law of Concord, which repeals the previous Law of Democratic Memory of 2017. PP and Vox gave the green light to this law on July 11, the same day and only a few hours before the extreme right announced the breakup of the joint Executives. The new law equates victims from 1931 to the present, including those of ETA terrorism, without condemning Francoism. Sources from the Valencian Government counter that the previous law equated victims from 1931 with those of the Transition, because it extended its application until 1982.
However, although the Mazón Executive has already approved the law, it is open to “dialogue” with the Government of Pedro Sánchez to “build from dialogue” the regulation that has to develop this norm, according to sources from the popular cabinet. “Without development regulations, there is no law,” these sources emphasize, who specify that their willingness to reach an agreement has one condition: that the Government withdraws the “threat” of appealing its law before the Constitutional Court, just as it did with that of Aragon.
The case of Castilla y León is also different because the law of concord that was agreed between the PP and Vox is still in parliamentary process. The bill presented by both parties last March replaces the memory decree signed by the PP in 2018. Sources from the Government of Castilla y León affirm that now their will is to stop it to “wait” for the ruling of the Constitutional Court on the appeal against the repeal of the memory legislation in Aragon. “We will go point by point analyzing and we will wait to see what happens with the decision of the Constitutional Court,” they emphasize in the cabinet of Alfonso Fernández Mañueco.
The main problem facing these new regulations is a hypothetical setback from the court of guarantees, which is preceded by a UN report that is highly critical of the projects promoted by PP and Vox in Castilla y León, Aragón and the Valencian Community. This analysis, signed by Fabian Salvioli, special rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition; Aua Baldé, rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, and Morris Tidball-Binz, special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, concludes that “the so-called concord laws could violate the obligation of the Spanish State to guarantee the preservation of the historical memory of serious human rights violations.” The Government of Aragon has complained that the rapporteurs did not meet with them to prepare the report, and President Jorge Azcón later wrote a letter to the UN Secretary General.
The national leadership of the PP never looked favourably on the approval of these “concord” laws because of the political noise they caused, and some members of the leadership were in favour of letting them die slowly in the parliamentary process. But Vox was putting pressure from within the governments to go all the way, so Génova let them do it. Now, with the ultras from outside, the popular barons have more room to manoeuvre and are in favour of softening them or, directly, putting them in a drawer.
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