The presentation was also attended by members of the Board of Directors of RTVE; the Minister of Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres; the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo; the Minister of Inclusion, Elma Saiz; the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Luis Planas; the President of the Council of State; Carmen Calvo, and the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, among other authorities.
The event, presented by the journalist of RTVE Xabier Fortes, had two colloquiums in which Nicolás Sartorius participated; the directors of the series and the writers Elvira Lindo and Natalia Junquera, together with Unai Sordo, leader of Workers Commissions; Lola Navarro, deputy general secretary of UGT, and the jurist Dolores Sancho.
“When Franco dies, democracy does not arise, but a repressive government. We had to fight hard to get rid of that.” “The dictator died in bed, but the dictatorship died in the street,” said Nicholas Sartorius.
Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, director of the last of the episodes, valued the transition to democracy as “a slow and agreed process, which caused a rupture”, while the writer Elvira Lindo described the role of women in this historical stage as decisive. “There were trade unionists, politicians, lawyers and women from the people whose work was very important,” he said.
The RTVE Orchestra and Choirs, directed by Raul Benavent, performed several anthems of the transition, such as ‘I am not that’, ‘For freedom’ or ‘Freedom without anger’. A recital to which the singer Ana Belén joined.
‘The Conquest of Democracy’, produced by RTVE and Tevescop, based on an original idea by Nicolás Sartorius and Fernando Galindo, consists of six 60-minute chapters, with original music by Alberto Iglesias, narrated through the gaze of six directors: Arantxa Aguirre, Ángeles González Sinde, Azucena Rodríguez, Imanol Uribe, Tania Balló and Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón.
The first chapter, ‘It Makes Way to Walk’ (Arantxa Aguirre), is part of the protest of a group of students against the dictatorship in 1956, which triggered strikes and protests throughout Spain.
In the second installment, ‘The beginning of the end’ (Ángeles González-Sinde) portrays the first years of the 1970s, marked by mobilizations in different social sectors.
‘Una galerna de huelgas’ (Azucena Rodríguez) is chapter 3, focused on how, after Franco’s death, the social struggle and the mass strikes promoted the democratic transition in Spain.
The fourth, ‘Rebeldes con causa: el hervidero universitario’ (Imanol Uribe), focuses on students, one of the groups that faced the dictatorship most forcefully.
Chapter five, ‘The silent majority’ (Tania Balló), gives an overview through the UMD, Justicia Democrática, the countryside or the neighborhood, feminist and LGTBI+ struggles in Spain.
The series ends with ‘El resurgir de la esperanza’ (Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón) and the massive mobilization of Spanish society, which made the open cracks of the dictatorship grow bigger and bigger.