The Parliament of Cantabria, with the votes of the PP and Vox, has started this Monday the procedures to repeal the autonomous law of Historical and Democratic Memory. Cantabria is governed alone by the popular party, with occasional support from the regionalists or the extreme right, and it is on the latter that they have relied on this occasion to promote the suppression of the previous legislation, approved by the PSOE and the Regionalist Party of Cantabria (PRC) in 2021. If the repeal is successful, Cantabria will be the third community – after Aragon and the Valencian Community – to eliminate its autonomous memory law, although the national law will remain in force in these communities as in all of them.
The right-wing alliance has claimed its initiative with the argument that the 2021 regional memory law “was born with the original sin of establishing first and second class victims,” in the words of PP spokesman Iñigo Fernández. “Why [defender sólo a] the victims of one side when there are terrible situations on both sides?” he asked. Leticia Díaz, from Vox, has compared the Second Republic with Franco’s dictatorship and has justified the “national uprising” —the coup d’état of 1936— by the “unbearable violence” that was experienced in Spain in the previous years. The PSOE has criticized the “denialism” of both parties and the PRC has regretted the “historical revisionism” of the Cantabrian Government.
The consideration of the bill to repeal the memory regulations has been approved with 19 votes in favour and 16 against. The popular Iñigo Fernández has affirmed that the 2021 law was an “outrage” and an “imposition”, “a bullying without respecting sensitivities”. He has assured that it was forged “without the willingness to accept a sincere dialogue” and rejecting the amendments of the PP. “By repealing this law we take a step in defence of coexistence and freedoms against the outrage of approving this regulation by force”, the parliamentarian insisted.
Her ally in the vote, Leticia Díaz, from Vox, has classified the coup as a “national uprising”, a term used by the Francoist rebels to define what happened in 1936: “Do you think that a national uprising occurred because there was a sea of coexistence or because there was unbearable violence there?”, she asked the opposition. Díaz has defined the memory law as “norms that provoke resentment among Spaniards”, she has assured that its repeal “seeks to preserve reconciliation” and has charged against a supposedly “despotic” society that “does not allow any other discourse than the official one”. “The [sociedades] “Democratic people must refrain from establishing a certain historical vision as correct,” she said. Both she and Fernández have brought up ETA and the Venezuelan regime in their speeches.
Monday’s vote means that the process to eliminate the law has begun. The initiative now moves to the parliamentary commission phase and the presentation of amendments. Sources in the Chamber say that it is difficult to estimate a time frame for the definitive repeal, although the parliamentary majority enjoyed by the PP and Vox allows one to predict that the measure will prosper. Aragon and the Valencian Community have already taken that step, although the Constitutional Court suspended the decision of the Aragonese Parliament last June pending a decision on the appeal filed by the central government.
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“A Spain in black and white”
The socialist spokesman in the debate this Monday in Cantabria, Mario Iglesias, has responded to the accusation that the 2021 law was “imposed” by the previous Government, recalling that the former was approved with 20 votes and today’s initiative has received 19. “Who imposes who?” he asked, before attacking the “denialism” of the right. “The Memory Law has nothing to do with resentment or revenge but with dignity and justice for the victims. The right has problems with memory, they find it difficult to call Francoism a dictatorship,” Iglesias said, recalling the PP’s alliance with Vox: “It is a travelling companion that draws from that black and white Spain.” The PSOE spokesman has highlighted the lack of support for exhumations or actions to restore democracy, something that the PP has denied, and has said goodbye with a warning: “Memory cannot be erased no matter how hard they try.”
The PRC has promised the socialists to promote a law similar to that of 2021 if they return to power. Pedro Hernando, the spokesman for the regionalists, has defined today as a “sad day for democracy” and has condemned the PP’s justifications: “They say that [la ley de memoria] It was imposed by the third party in votes [el PSOE] but now it is repealed at the request of the fourth [Vox]”. Hernando recalled the bombings of working-class neighbourhoods in Santander in 1936 and criticised the fact that “no one has paid tribute” to the victims. “This is the difference between the sides, this is what this law was trying to change”, he said.
“The Law of Memory represents historical justice, it is not a threat to coexistence but rather the recovery of memory, dignity, justice for all, without sides, without winners or losers,” the regionalist claimed. “If they repeal this law today, they will be breaking the maxim of support for the Constitution.” Hernando has criticized this “historical revisionism of the PP and Vox” and has launched invitations to dialogue, something offered by all parties but with no signs of coming to fruition.
The PP and Vox, unlike in other communities where they governed together before the breakup last July, have not announced an alternative law to the memory law, such as the Concordia law in Aragon, Castile and Leon or the Valencian Community. The PSOE has recalled that the Government would appeal these new regulations before the Constitutional Court.
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