Democratic remembrance in Spain and respect for the victims of Franco’s regime

Written declaration No. 793 | Doc. 15969 | 02 July 2024

Signatories:

Ms Luz MARTINEZ SEIJO, Spain, SOC ; Ms Petra BAYR, Austria, SOC ; Mr Fourat BEN CHIKHA, Belgium, SOC ; Ms Doris BURES, Austria, SOC ; Ms Laura CASTEL, Spain, UEL ; Mr Randolph DE BATTISTA, Malta, SOC ; Mr Cerni ESCALÉ, Andorra, SOC ; Ms María FERNÁNDEZ, Spain, SOC ; Ms Aurora FLORIDIA, Italy, SOC ; Mr Pierre-Alain FRIDEZ, Switzerland, SOC ; Mr Andries GRYFFROY, Belgium, NR ; Mr Antonio GUTIÉRREZ LIMONES, Spain, SOC ; Ms Tuula HAATAINEN, Finland, SOC ; Mr Mogens JENSEN, Denmark, SOC ; Ms Yevheniia KRAVCHUK, Ukraine, ALDE ; Mr Christophe LACROIX, Belgium, SOC ; Mr Max LUCKS, Germany, SOC ; Mr Saša MAGAZINOVIĆ, Bosnia and Herzegovina, SOC ; Mr Didier MARIE, France, SOC ; Ms Anna-Kristiina MIKKONEN, Finland, SOC ; Mr Simon MOUTQUIN, Belgium, SOC ; Ms Filiz POLAT, Germany, SOC ; Ms Agnes Sirkka PRAMMER, Austria, SOC ; Mr Søren SØNDERGAARD, Denmark, UEL ; Lord Don TOUHIG, United Kingdom, SOC ; Ms Susanna VELA, Andorra, SOC

This written declaration does not reflect the position of the Assembly; only of those members that have signed it. It will not be considered further by the Assembly.

We, the undersigned, declare the following:

On 17 March 2006, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe condemned the numerous and serious violations of human rights committed by the Franco regime in Spain regime from 1939 to 1975 and issued recommendations to the Spanish Government to promote investigations and establish the truth about the repressive regime. In 2022, the Law of Democratic Memory, a law of collective remembrance of the horrors of war and all forms of totalitarianism, was passed.

In the last two months, right-wing and far-right governments have passed a law in Aragon and introduced bills in the parliaments of Valencia and Castilla y León to revoke the previous laws on historical and democratic memory, whitewashing Francoism by deleting the word dictatorship and omitting serious human rights violations. They wipe out the right to collective remembrance and condemn the victims to silence and forgetfulness.

For all these reasons, we condemn these actions, which disrespect the victims of a totalitarian and anti-democratic regime like that of Franco and those who fought against tyranny and oppression, abandon the values of respect for human dignity and human rights, and degrade truth and memory.