After five years in force, the PP-Vox coalition completed the repeal of the Aragon Democratic Memory Law this Thursday. In a climate of high tension, with harsh criticism from left-wing groups and memorialist associations, the parties that make up the Aragonese Executive have added their votes in the Cortes to overthrow this regulation. An end that has arrived urgently through the single reading procedure and without going through legislative hearings, as repeatedly requested by the opposition, who accuse the government of applying “legislative steamroller methods.”
The end of the norm has counted on the favorable votes of the PP and Vox, whose 35 deputies have an absolute majority in the chamber. Against it, the opposition as a bloc, including the PSOE (23), Chunta Aragonesista (3), Teruel Exist (3), Podemos (1) and Izquierda Unida (1).
For the government partners, the Democratic Memory Law imposed “an official narrative” and a “partisan” and “sectarian” vision of history that only shows consideration for the victims of one side, considers those of the other as executioners and reopens old stories. wounds.
Its repeal, included in the electoral program of the ultra party but not in that of the popular party, had already been advanced during the signing of the government pact between the two in August. The procedures for his settlement began on November 20, the date on which the dictator Francisco Franco died 48 years ago, which provoked angry criticism from the opposition for what was considered a gesture of "provocation and lack of respect."
Faced with its satisfaction, the opposition described today's day as "painful", and accused the coalition of wanting to "twist" and "whitewash" history. “It is a law that made all victims equal,” said socialist deputy Daniel Alastruey, who regretted that this community became part of the “sad and short list” of autonomies that do not have their own regulations on this matter, all of them. them governed by the popular (Galicia, Madrid and Murcia)
With the end of this rule, it is expected that, among other things, the democratic memory routes, the research center, the registry of entities, the educational activities related to this topic or the institutional web portal of the Government of Aragon on memory will disappear. democratic.
Instead, a “Democratic Concord Plan” is expected to be approved for victims who suffered “persecution or violence for political, ideological or religious belief reasons.” The text, which is being prepared by the Ministry of the Presidency, Interior and Culture, in principle guarantees that searches for bodies still to be recovered can continue.
Along these lines, counselor Tomasa Hernández recently committed to ensuring that memorial associations continue to have budget allocations for exhumations, although these groups do not trust that this will be the case.
Representatives of these groups, between 100 and 200 people convened by the Action Platform for the Memory of Aragon (PAMA), protested today in front of the Aljafería Palace, headquarters of the Aragonese Parliament, against its repeal. With signs that read “They can repeal the law but not the memory,” they asked that the victims of Francoism and the civil war continue to be recognized and the rights of their families be maintained.
The president of the platform, Anabel Lapuente, described the day as “sad” due to the “loss of rights.” “We demand that we continue to be vindicated as victims, that we continue to help all the families who need to recover the remains of their loved ones and that historians and professors be allowed to tell the story as it was: enough of equidistance and of whitening” he stressed.
Even so, he celebrated the protection they have left with the state law and the help of the Provincial Council of Zaragoza (DPZ) and the State Secretariat of Democratic Memory and has assured that the memorial associations are not going to stop searching for the victims. nor about working with historians. “We have never shown resentment or hatred, we have only wanted all people to have the recognition they deserved,” he noted.
