The definitive approval by the Senate of the Law of Democratic Memory represents an important advance for the strengthening of Spanish democracy and the culmination of the democratic path and reconciliation undertaken with the transition. Because that is what this law is about, to complete the transition, which undoubtedly had a laudable and successful objective, the reconciliation of the Spaniards that was reflected in the 1978 Constitution. But what was done with the oblivion of the victims of Francoism , since those of the coup camp had already been widely recognized and repaired.
For this reason, the purpose of the Law is to deepen the recognition of those who suffered persecution or violence during the Spanish War and the Dictatorship until the entry into force of the Spanish Constitution of 1978. And also the recovery, safeguarding and dissemination of Democratic Memory and the vindication of democratic values and fundamental rights and freedoms throughout our contemporary age, including for the first time in an explicit way in its articles the repudiation and condemnation of the military coup of July 1936 and the Franco dictatorship, as well as the declaration of its illegality.
And it does so based on the principles of truth, justice, reparation and guarantee of non-repetition, for which our country was required by successive reports from international organizations. Among them, that of the UN special rapporteur Pablo de Greiff of July 2014, who, in addition to calling for public policies in favor of memory, pointed out that "assistance to victims is not a matter of partisan policies or political programs, but of principles and rights that concern everyone. And likewise that of the United Nations Human Rights Council of September 2017, which reiterated the previous one and regretted observing little progress in its implementation by the Rajoy Government.
The Law seeks, therefore, the recognition and moral, political and legal reparation of the victims and their memory. It has been a conquest of enlightened modernity that there is no justice or dignity without memory, and that history cannot be built from the victors, but, as Walter Benjamin pointed out, as the history of the victims and from the victims. Fundamentally of the forgotten ones, those of the Franco regime and the dictatorship, but including all those of the civil war.
However, the political and media right wing have been opposing the new Law with fallacious arguments, which are derived neither from the text of the norm, nor from its objectives set out in the Explanatory Memorandum, much less from the intention and will of the Government. and the actions of the socialists during the dictatorship and the transition. They already did it with Zapatero's Historical Memory Law of 2007 and when they came to the Government in 2012, Rajoy boasted that he would allocate "0 euros" to its application, including the exhumations of the disappeared.
In the debate in the Senate, the representatives of the PP did not make any reference to the content of the Law, but with fiery language they rejected it, denouncing an invented rupture of the consensus on the constitutional pact and the spirit of the transition, including the amnesty, and that it is intended to prosecute crimes until 1983 as a concession to ETA and its heirs, some columnist even writing that it is an initiative against the socialists and communists who agreed to the transition, which the Spanish Transition Foundation has also reiterated.
We have to remember with pride that we socialists contributed decisively to the transition and the 1978 Constitution, one of the most brilliant moments in the history of Spain, even with its limitations. At the same time that we defend democratic memory as the culmination of the reconciliation process undertaken with the transition, which should be completed with the recognition of the victims of Francoism. For this reason, it is categorically uncertain that the Democratic Memory Law supposes the rupture or the questioning of the transition or the constitutional pact, since it highlights and extols them expressly and clearly throughout its statement of reasons.
It literally states that “The current Constitution was based on a broad social and political commitment to overcome the serious and deep wounds that Spanish society had suffered during the war and the forty years of Franco's dictatorship. This consensus was the spirit of our political transition, and has been the basis of the era of greatest splendor and prosperity that our country has known. The Transition assumed the democratic legacy and dignity that several generations of Spaniards had forged around the defense of democracy, the anti-fascist struggle in Europe and the recovery of individual and collective freedoms in our country…”.
And further on “The conquest and consolidation of democracy in Spain has been the most significant historical achievement of Spanish society”, “the 1978 Constitution makes our society stronger and constitutes the clearest commitment to coexistence in the future”, “ In this context, Spanish society has a duty to remember the people who were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and even lost their property and even their own lives in defense of democracy and freedom”, because reconciliation did not have and cannot have its roots in oblivion, nor can there be harmony without memory.
Whoever affirms that the new Law breaks with the transition and the Constitutional Pact, or has not read it -which undoubtedly occurs in many of those who criticize it-, or simply falsifies it.
The Law also highlights the Amnesty Law, "a historic claim by the anti-Francoist opposition" and at the same time an expression "of the desire for reconciliation and the construction of an advanced democratic society that presided over this political process", as highlighted in the exposition of For this reason, the amendments that ERC or Bildu proposed for the total or partial repeal of the Amnesty Law were rejected by the PSOE, as it had previously opposed other parliamentary initiatives that sought its repeal.
But like all legal regulations, the Amnesty Law must also be interpreted in accordance with the international human rights treaties ratified by Spain, in such a way as to guarantee the right to truth and justice for the victims of serious human rights violations. , which the Law remembers and carries out through what has been called “restorative justice”.
Nor is it true that it is intended to "prosecute crimes" until 1983. The Law unequivocally establishes as the period to which its measures extend from the coup d'état of July 18, 1936 until the entry into force of the 1978 Constitution. Nothing to do with the provision of the 16th additional provision that the Government will designate a technical commission to study possible violations of human rights suffered by fighters for the consolidation of democracy, fundamental rights and democratic values, between the approval of the Constitution and on December 31, 1983, for possible recognition and repair. Which in no case includes terrorists or victims of the GAL, who did not fight for democracy or human rights.
It is still a pending issue for the Spanish democratic right to break its emotional ties with the Franco regime. This time it has not been achieved either.
