April 1, 2024.- The Government of Spain will submit to the Constitutional Court the autonomous laws that repeal the regulation of Democratic Memory and that have been promoted in the communities of Aragón, the Valencian Community and, more recently, Castilla y León. The Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory will analyze whether these regional legislations violate the Democratic Memory Act of 2022 and the international treaties on humanitarian law signed by Spain.
The parliamentary groups of the PP and Vox of Castilla y León presented last Tuesday a proposal for an autonomous law of the Concordia that aims to repeal the current Decree of Historical and Democratic Memory, approved by the previous government of the community. Previously, in mid-February, the Government of Aragon repealed the Autonomous Law of Democratic Memory, promoted by the former executive in 2018. The Valencian Community also did the same, when on March 21 it presented, with the help of the PP and Vox, a proposal for an Autonomous Law of Concord to replace the current Valencian Law of Democratic Memory of 2017.
“The Secretariats of Territorial Politics and Democratic Memory have studied the laws and proposals of law that are driving the governments formed by PP and Vox against Democratic Memory. With regard to Aragon, which has already approved its rule to repeal the autonomous law of 2018, the Government will activate the Bilateral Commission to try to reach an agreement. If it is not reached, we will appeal to the Constitutional Court,” said Ángel Víctor Torres, Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory. Regarding the Valencian Community and Castilla y León, the minister has clarified that the legal services are analyzing the texts and, “if relevant, remedies of unconstitutionality will also be filed,” he said.
“This is a Ministry of agreements, but it is also true that there are mechanisms that are already arbitrated and that, if we do not reach an understanding, we will go to the Constitutional Court to ensure compliance with the Law,” said the minister. “The Democratic Memory Act is to repair the damage to all the victims, but those of the winning side of the Civil War were exhumed during the Franco regime. The same did not happen to those who fought to defend the constitutional and democratic order, and this law is to protect them,” he added.
Guarantee for exhumations in Aragon
Torres wanted to clarify that “both in Aragon, and in any corner of Spain, the Government will apply the State Law” and has assured that exhumations will continue to be subsidized from the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory. “In Aragon there will not be any grave left without exhuming,” the minister assured. The Aragonese Law that, as has been mentioned, repeals the Autonomous Law of Democratic Memory of 2018, “contains aspects such as denying any tribute to people who were prisoners and reprisals in Nazi concentration camps, eliminates the map of graves and removes the inventory of places of Memory that was being implemented in the community,” said Ángel Víctor Torres who has insisted that work will continue on this inventory, as well as on the rigorous application of the Law of Democratic Memory, because “international law and human rights are being violated.”
As for the proposed autonomous law of the Concordia de Castilla y León, it speaks of “honoring and protecting the history of Spain from 1931 to 1978”, including, therefore, the years of the Second Republic -as already did the proposed law of the Valencian Comunitat-, and without making any reference or condemning the Franco Dictatorship. “It is unacceptable to try to equate the democratic years of the Second Republic (1931-1936) with the Dictatorship after the Civil War and its consequences,” added the minister, who considers that “democracy cannot be equated with totalitarianism.”
The approaches of these norms promoted in the communities of Aragón, Comunitat Valenciana and Castilla y León are based on revisionist postulates and use arguments such as that there is no historical consensus on the stages of the Republic, the Civil War and Franco’s regime, or that the new generations have received a biased vision of what happened in those stages, thus favoring a division in Spanish society. “These are approaches that whitewash the Franco dictatorship, deny the existence of the coup d’état as the cause of the Spanish War from 1936 to 1939, pretend that the truth of what happened is not known and, what is worse, condemn the victims back to oblivion”, added Torres.
True concord
On the “concord to overcome the past” claimed by PP and Vox, Ángel Víctor Torres wanted to make it clear that “the true concord is to respect democracy and human rights.” For the minister, the PP “gets carried away by Vox and is submissive to the far-right. The Aragonese Law of 2018 included some amendments of that PP. Now, at the suggestion of Vox, they repeal a law that contained articles with amendments that they themselves proposed at the time.”
The minister considers that these regional norms seek, “through a misunderstood concord, to bury the memory of the victims of the War and the Franco dictatorship.” Torres has reiterated that he will ensure compliance with Law 20/22, of October 19, on Democratic Memory. “The Government of Spain is determined to comply with the law without hesitation and to take it to the last corner of the country, to ensure democracy, which is the most valuable thing we have,” he concluded.