Searching for those who disappeared during the Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship, and studying the possible violations of human rights between 1978 and 1983 are the objectives of the Democratic Memory Law that will enter into force this Friday after a long parliamentary process.
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The Official State Gazette (BOE) published this Thursday this controversial and discussed rule that was definitively approved 15 days ago with the votes against PP, Vox and Ciudadanos.
The Minister of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory, Félix Bolaños, has highlighted that the Law intends to close once and for all the wounds of the victims of war and dictatorship.
In a video posted on Twitter, with Picasso’s Guernica in the background, Bolaños added that the law claims “freedom against repression, democracy against dictatorship and recognition against oblivion”.
The new norm, which replaces the 2007 Memory Law, was born under the principles of “truth, justice and reparation” and seeks to dignify the forgotten victims, as well as “avoid the repetition of the most tragic episodes in history.”
Thus, he considers it a political “inexcusable moral duty” and a “sign of the quality of democracy to remember, repair and dignify the victims of the coup d’état, the war in Spain and the Franco dictatorship because he understands that «forgetting is not an option for a democracy”.
The most important points
-The Franco regime will be declared illegal: the Law of Democratic Memory declares both the Francoist regime and the Francoist courts illegal, so all their sentences are annulled.
-The State assumes the search for the disappeared: The search for persons who disappeared during the Civil War and the Dictatorship will correspond to the General State Administration, without prejudice to the powers of other public administrations.
To do this, it will prepare a map to locate missing persons and create a state DNA bank of victims of the Civil War and the Dictatorship in order to compare genetic profiles in the identification of remains.
-Definition of victim: considers a victim to be a person who has suffered physical, moral or psychological damage, property damage or impairment of fundamental rights from the coup d’état of July 18, 1936 until the entry into force of the 1978 Constitution.
They will have the right to “comprehensive recognition and reparation” by the State, as well as to “compensation” for seized assets and economic sanctions produced for political, ideological, conscientious or religious reasons during the Civil War and the Dictatorship.
-Days of Remembrance: October 31 is declared as a day of remembrance and tribute to all the victims of the military coup, the Civil War and the Dictatorship, and May 8 as a day of remembrance and tribute to the men and women who suffered exile as a consequence of the Civil War and the Dictatorship.
-Valley of Cuelgamuros not Valley of the Fallen: The law contemplates the creation of a state inventory of places of democratic memory, among which will be the current Valle de los Caídos (Madrid), which is renamed Valle de Cuelgamuros and will reveal the circumstances of its construction and its meaning.
Only the mortal remains of people who died as a result of the war may lie here and those remains that occupy a prominent place in the enclosure will be relocated, as is the case of José Antonio Primo who, after the exhumation of Francisco Franco, is the only individual grave that remains.
In addition, the traditional name of the so-called Pantheon of Illustrious Men is modified to be called the Pantheon of Spain.
-A prosecutor to investigate: A Chamber Prosecutor is created to investigate violations of international law and human rights during the coup d’état, the Civil War and the Dictatorship, which will also promote the processes of searching for victims.
– Symbols contrary to democratic memory: symbols “contrary to democratic memory”, such as shields, badges, plaques and other elements or objects attached to public buildings or located on public roads that praise the military uprising and the dictatorship, will be removed.
EFE
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