He assumed the position of Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory last November, just a few months after the PSOE lost six autonomous governments (seven including Cantabria, where they co-governed with the PRC) and among them, his own, the Canary Islands, after the elections of May 28 and the first agreements between the PP and Vox. The far-right party demanded that the popular party repeal the regional memory laws and has begun to collect its debts. Ángel Víctor Torres (Arucas, Gran Canaria, 58 years old), philologist and former high school teacher, rebels against the “hoaxes” against memory legislation. “It is for all the victims, but those of the winning side have already been exhumed. “We have not received any request to open graves from the Franco side.” Since 2000, the remains of more than 13,600 reprisal victims have been recovered. “We are not going to stop until we try to exhume everyone,” he promises.
Ask. The report of the three United Nations rapporteurs urged the Government to take all necessary measures against the anti-memory laws promoted by PP and Vox. What have they done so far and what other avenues do they have?
Answer. Aragón has not wanted to sit down and talk due to mechanism 33.2 of the Constitutional Court law [para llegar a un acuerdo y evitar el recurso], which seems like a superb itch. At the end of the month we will take the Council of Ministers to submit to the Constitutional Court, following the opinion of the Council of State, the repeal of that law. And if the Constitutional Court does not fail as we hope, there are other instances, such as Strasbourg.
Q. What is going to be the main legal argument of that appeal? Aragón argues that there are other communities that do not have memory laws.
R. That article 10.2 of the Constitution is violated, which says that human rights and agreements signed not by the Government, but by Spain, must be respected. In their report, the UN rapporteurs specify the ratified agreements and at what points each of these legislative initiatives violates them. [de PP y Vox].
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Q. The democratic memory law (2022) establishes as a cause for the extinction of a foundation the apology of Francoism with contempt for the victims. The Government has stated that the Franco Foundation fits that definition. Why hasn’t the foundation law been modified yet?
R. The competent authority is the Ministry of Culture and it is fully involved in this. There is no room for the apology of a dictator. With the pertinent legal figure, the Rule of Law, and I know that not without difficulties, will be extinguished.
Q. When?
R. We are trying to make it happen as soon as possible. If it were up to us, we would have made more progress in the exhumations in the Cuelgamuros Valley, the Benedictine monks would no longer be there…, but there have been many electoral appointments. Now we have set cruising speed.
Q. Is there any chance that the Benedictines will stay in Cuelgamuros?
R. We want them to leave. We are talking with them and with the ecclesiastical authorities. It should be a secular center that serves to explain the war and what came after. They can’t stay.
Q. How have they taken it?
R. They don’t want to leave, there is some resistance, but there was also resistance to exhuming the remains of Francisco Franco and in the end the justice system supported it.
Feijóo has ordered the autonomies to implement a strategy of harassment and demolition and while this continues there will be no institutional normality
Q. A study revealed the deep historical gaps of young people. The law establishes that the educational system will include knowledge of repression. For the right, that is indoctrination. Is the law being followed in this regard?
R. The difficulties are maximum, they are put in place by the extreme right with the consent of the PP. And it’s unfortunate. Recently, in an educational center, I asked if they had studied the Second Republic and they told me that they had not arrived yet because they were in the Aznar era. The historical ignorance is tremendous, it makes my hair stand on end. Knowing history is not reinventing it.
Q. How can you guarantee that the law is followed in the communities governed by the PP?
R. It is difficult because education is a regional competence. But I will fight it with all my might, as a Democrat and as a father.
Q. The memory law opened a way for the PNV to claim the current headquarters of the Cervantes Institute in Paris. Has this negotiation made any progress?
R. Yes, although the PNV would like to advance at a greater pace. We hope to soon have a definitive response both for them, as well as for ERC and other groups that have also made claims for seized assets.
Q. Will the PNV be able to recover that building?
R. Yes, in conversations you can even agree on its fate.
Q. After the transfer of the remains of Franco, Primo de Rivera and Queipo de Llano, that of Milans and Moscardo is pending in the Alcázar of Toledo, which affects the Ministry of Defense.
R. We have some difficulties in the field of Defense due to various issues, but the democratic memory law does not make distinctions.
Q. Does the defense have problems?
R. It’s not easy, but we will move forward. The important thing is that the minister has said in plenary that we must abide by the Memory law.
Q. The PSOE has just won the elections in Catalonia, but has lost a lot of territorial power in the last year. What do you attribute it to?
R. The 2023 elections did not go as we expected after the pandemic. That said, the parties have to have a renewal process and it is happening. We have seen it in Catalonia: there was an organic change and there are the results. That doesn’t mean that Iceta didn’t do it well, but that sometimes you have to make a change.
Q. Can the country be governed with so many autonomous regions against it?
R. When I was appointed minister, I expressed my desire to reduce litigation with the communities, but I knew that it was going to be more difficult. Feijóo has ordered the autonomies to adopt a strategy of harassment and demolition and as long as this is maintained there will be no institutional normality.
Q. Several communities oppose the mandatory distribution of migrant minors agreed with the Canary Islands. Do you trust reaching an agreement on the immigration law with the current panorama, where electoral campaigns and tension have plunged the country into a kind of political paralysis?
R. It is in the hands of the PP, which, by the way, governs the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, the most tense territories. I am skeptical when I listen to Vox and see that, although the presidents of the PP do not share their positions, they do not correct them or make them ugly either.
Q. How did you find out that the Canarian Government had contracted with the Koldo García plot?
R. The day the news breaks. I did not get the opportunity to hire this job even through Ábalos. [José Luis, exministro de Fomento] not even by Koldo, but through the director of the Health Service at the time.
Q. Are you surprised that someone with García’s resume managed to wield that power? Should the figure of the advisor be restricted in some way?
R. It is a complex issue, and the presumption of innocence must prevail. Responsibilities for commissions that could be illegal will have to be resolved in court.
Q. The millionaire commission that the president of the Las Palmas Sports Union received for the sale of medical supplies is also being investigated. Is the system sufficiently protected?
R. It is an investigation into alleged tax fraud and I say the same thing: clarify what needs to be clarified.
Q. Did you understand Sánchez’s letter to the citizens and those five days of reflection?
R. I understood a human reaction resulting from personal exhaustion. The day of the plenary session of Congress [después de que se admitiera una denuncia contra su esposa] I was tremendously affected. He made me happy that he decided to continue, even though he would have understood any other decision. The hoax cannot be a tool to harm a political rival. With all due respect to justice and open proceedings, the complaint against his wife contains false information.
Q. Do you think it contributed to reducing polarization or just the opposite?
R. I think it should also help Feijóo reflect. We believed that he came to Madrid to make proposals. The opposition, with its oversight, is essential for the good action of a government. The problem is that Feijóo does not accept that he is the leader of the opposition because the parliamentary majority decided so. I also won the elections and I am not president of the Canary Islands, but I accept it and work loyally with the new president. In the Senate the most virulent interventions come from the PP, which has become radicalized. There are no more arguments, only insults, disqualifications.
![Minister Ángel Víctor Torres, last Tuesday, at the Adanero palace (Madrid).](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/NP7U7JGGQ5D3LEQNI35VUS7SVA.jpg?auth=c800370d6ffdb10a99c749706c1ab77abff3df21bf3b9021fe12d48ec3817e8d&width=414)
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