PODCAST: Open Wounds – Dealing with the Francoist Past
45 years after the death of dictator Francisco Franco many issues remain unresolved
civil war victims
Spain's cabinet approves 'Historical Memory Law' in first step to annul Franco-era convictions
Pending parliamentary approval, law will ban organizations sympathetic to dictatorship
Spanish Parliament calls for removal of Franco’s remains from ‘Valle los Caídos’ while PP’s abstains
The Spanish Parliament approved a bill this Thursday presented by the Spanish Socialist Party aimed at removing the mortal remains of the two dictators Francisco Franco and José Antonio Primo de Rivera’s from the Valle de los Caídos basilica. The text calls for this monumental complex to “stop being a Francoist and national-catholic landmark” and to instead be turned into “a space for reconciliation and collective and democratic memory, aimed at dignifying and recognizing the victims of the Spanish Civil War and of the dictatorship”. Although it was a non-binding proposal, the governing Spanish Conservative, People’s Party (PP), abstained from voting. Catalan left-wing pro-independence ERC also abstained, but because they considered the proposal to be insufficient.