Two years have passed since the Democratic Memory Law. Public has prepared a debate with experts and representatives of memorial associations to analyze the consequences of the norm. In general, the conclusions of the conversation about the law are negative. In the video attached under this paragraph you can see the complete debate.
To analyze the law and the role of the Government and the institutions in its development we have had three key voices. Their trajectories have been marked by a tireless fight in the defense and reparation of the memory of the victims of Franco’s regime. Rosa García Alcónan activist from La Comuna, has been a victim of torture by Billy the Kid. Sergio Galvez Biescadoctor in Contemporary History and expert in public memory policies, has investigated how the Amnesty Law of 1977 has limited access to archives and has made it difficult to recover the historical truth. The third voice is that of Arturo Peinado Canoactivist and president of the State Federation of Memory Forums. He is the grandson of victims of Francoism.
The impunity of the crimes of Franco’s regime
The three have agreed that the balance of the law is “negative” despite the fact that it raised great expectations and seemed to offer “enormous progress.” They have focused on a key element to understand the failure of the norm: the lack of will of the legislatorespecially from PSOE. Although the socialists have been the ones who have governed for the longest time since the restoration of democracy, there is still impunity for the crimes of Franco’s regime.
Rosa has recalled the “blow” that the car of the Constitutional Court after rejecting the resource of Francisco Venturaa communist militant arrested, tortured and retaliated against in the late 1960s. The body, despite its progressive majority, defended that the acts he suffered “cannot be classified as crimes against humanity, given that the crime against humanity did not exist in our legal system at that time”.
However, the problem, they have argued, is not only in the approach that judges can take. The magistrates also encounter legal blockages that prevent them from taking the cases of victims of Franco’s regime to a place of reparation and justice. In this sense, it is especially important the amnesty law of 1977, that exonerated the criminals of the dictatorship. “The Spanish model of impunity has not been ended, compromises have been made, patches have been put in place. This is a question of political will. The majority actor in the Government refuses to take this step,” Sergio firmly denounces.
Arturo Peinado: “It is not a legal problem, but a political one”
Arturo has insisted on this idea: “The fundamental problem is that the impunity of the Franco regime is based on 78 regimeand the PSOE He hasn’t had the courage to face it. A judge cannot ignore the law, it is not a legal problem, it is a political problem.” He explained that judges cannot ignore either the law of ’77 or the doctrine developed by the Supreme and the Constitutional.
A law without the necessary regulations
The Democratic Memory Law It is an ordinary law, not an organic law. This has been pointed out as a limitation, since organic laws are those that regulate fundamental rights and public freedoms, and have a higher legal rank than ordinary laws. To which we must add that the norm has barely been regulated. “This is one of the big problems of the law, just as what happened with the one promoted by Shoemaker. This leaves, for example, the removal of Francoist monuments to the discretion of the minister or mayor in turn,” said Arturo.
Rosa García: “We are the only victims who do not have rights”
“We are talking about obvious democratic deficits,” Sergio added. “The end of Franco’s regime is explained by the workers and organizations, mostly communists, who were laminating the regime until a Franco regime without Franco was impossible.” At that moment in the debate, Rosa has expressed, helplessly, the idea behind the memory abuse of these years: “We are the only victims who do not have rights and we are the only victims recognized internationally as such, as victims of a dictatorship.”
In April 2022, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskygave a speech before the Congress of Deputies. “We are in April 2022, but It looks like April 1937 Guernica“said the president. Rosa has reproduced that moment with perplexity. “Did he know that those he was addressing had not condemned the bombing or anything about Franco’s regime?” he put the question on the table.
The activist has detailed how torture in the General Directorate of Security (DGS) were systematic. She herself was arrested in 1975 and spent seven days there. She was tortured by Antonio González Pachecoalias Billy the Kid, and other police officers of the Franco regime. “It was continuous humiliating treatment. There is no plaque that remembers it, that gives meaning to the building,” he said. Currently, the DGS is the Royal Post Officeheadquarters of the Government of the Community of Madrid.
The role of the right and the hesitations of the left
The three have shown their agreement in this approach: the right does not hesitate when it comes to exercising policies that vindicate the dictatorship. However, the left hesitates when it comes to promoting measures that, without subterfuge, contribute to the reparation, justice and truth.
“Yes, there is a historical memory that applies, that of the victors”
“The right has very clear ideas regarding memory policies, the occupation of public spaces and fill them with your ideology. It is their future project,” Arturo stressed. “In reality, there is a historical memory that has been applied since the year 39, which is the historical memory of the victors,” Rosa pointed out.
Sergio has expressed himself more forcefully: “Behind everything, these norms of ‘concord’, historical revisionism and institutional denialism, the heart of fascism beatswho are very clear about what they did.” The historian has lamented how left-wing parties appeal to “electoral interests” to treat memory. “Leaders of a certain leftist formation,” he said with disgust, “told me that this is not profitable in electoral terms. We are talking about electoral profitability versus human rights. That also gives you a lot to think about the political ethics that certain organizations have.”
The cornerstone of this journey: the PSOE
The three guests have expressed their discomfort when the focus of the analysis has focused on the work of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party. From Felipe González to Pedro Sánchez, passing through José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, memory policies have been characterized by a “lack of courage.” Arturo has stressed that “the impunity of Franco’s regime was one of the central pillars of the Transition regime.” “This explains why the right continues to be Francoist,” he clarified.
Sergio has indicated that the PSOE has ignored “all the approved conventions and norms that support international law in defense of victims of crimes against humanity.” Furthermore, he has pointed out that, with the Democratic Memory Lawthere is “no possibility of achieving real reparation, not even with regard to the right to judicial truth.” Although Rosa has pointed out: “There is legislation; and, if there is not, let them remove it, that is what the Legislature and the Executive are for.”
The Francisco Franco Foundation, not yet illegalized
Two years after the law came into force and two years in which the law has not been made illegal. Francisco Franco Foundation. An entity that unapologetically exalts the image of the dictator and pays homage to his oppressive regime to the shame of the victims. There is a more dramatic time period. Sánchez became President in June 2018. More than six years without remedying it. “The PSOE has governed Spain longer than the PP and has had absolute majorities. If it has not done so, it is because it has not wanted to. That is clear,” Rosa said.
Sergio Gálvez: “There is plenty of legislation to close that foundation”
“There is plenty of legislation to have closed that foundation – although Sergio has reasoned an action prior to its illegalization – but first the Historical Heritage Service of the Civil Guard and recover all the public documentation that that foundation has kidnapped.” He was one of those who intervened in the drafting of the Democratic Memory law, in the sections related to the preservation and recovery of the archives. “These data must go to a public archive so that it has adequate treatment and an evaluation is made in case documentation has disappeared. “There is a regulation on how to act when faced with the destruction of documentation or heritage.”
Despite continuing obstacles, from a lack of political will to a state structure founded on historical amnesiaArturo has placed a focus of optimism, especially due to the push of society. “We are not in the same situation, simply because the memorial movement has grownhas been developed, its approaches have been assumed by a good part of society, by a good part of the militancy, of the political forces. So we are better off, fundamentally, because of the construction of work from below, of a broad associative movement that is enormously plural,” he concluded.
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