Francoism victims denounce in Brussels the impunity of the dictatorship’s crimes in Spain

Barcelona (ACN).- The victims of Franco's regime have denounced before the European Parliament in Brussels crimes committed during the dictatorship and their impunity in Spain. Last week, they urged EU institutions to play “a more active and committed role” in facing the problem. Merçona Puig Antich, sister of anarchist activist Salvador Puig Antich, who was one of the last victims of the Francoist garrotte executions for political reasons, hopes that this action will serve “to apply pressure” so that Francoist ex-ministers can be extradited to Argentina, where there is an ongoing judicial process. Other figures also participated in the Brussels event, such as representatives of the association for babies stolen during the dictatorship and the association of the 1976 Vitoria massacre, where police fired on striking workers.

The Spanish post-Communist coalition Izquierda Unida organised the conference in the European Parliament, with the participation of the dictatorship’s victims to show “the impunity of Francoism”. The event served to demonstrate the “magnitude of the crimes committed”, and included the Catalan MEPs Ernest Urtasun from the Catalan Green Socialist party ICV and Josep Maria Terricabres and Ernest Maragall, from the Catalan pro-independence party ERC. The Basque MEPs Izaskun Bilbao from the Partido Nacionalista Vasco (PNV) and Josu Jurasti from the alternative left and radical Basque independence party Bildualso participated in the event.

Merçona Puig Antich, sister of Salvador Puig Antich, who was sentenced to death by garrotte vil in 1974, hopes that this act of denouncement will “push” Europe “to apply pressure” for the extradition of Francoist ex-ministers Rodolfo Martín Villa and José Utrera Molina, who happens to be the father–in-law of former Spanish Minister of Justice Alberto Ruiz Gallardón (who resigned in last September). Merçona Puig Antich also claimed that “Spain ignores the bilateral treaty” with Argentina, where the case against these ex-ministers is taking place, and “the universal orders from the judge” to extradite them. According to her, the impunity of Francoism is not a problem of “recognising what happened” with the murder of his brother, but one of “political will”.

Carlos Slepoy, the Argentinian lawyer leading the lawsuit, is convinced that, in the end, the context in Spain will make it possible to “carry out these trials”. Chato Galan, the representative of the Argentinian state support to the prosecution, accompanied him. The Swedish liberal Cecilia Wikström, President of the European Parliament's Committee on Petitions, was the person who collected the complaints on Francoist impunity.