The workshops were held in Prat de Llobregat, Barcelona on November 7, 2023 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 21 people attended to the event with different profiles: civil society organisation, administrations in Catalonia like Generalitat de Catalunya, think tanks and universities.
MEMORY TODAY I – II had the objective of being able to share the results of the two investigations “RIGHT AND FAR RIGHT NARRATIVES ON COLLECTIVE MEMORY” and “COLLECTIVE MEMORY PRACTICES CONCERNING THE RIGHT-WING” and to be able to establish a debate regarding the topic. NOVACT team explained the two reports and we had the time to share the results:
The participants made some notes or comments on the investigations.
– Importance of relating the common points of the current extreme right with the era of fascism in Spain. These themes were highlighted: Historical nostalgia, populism and authoritarianism, anti-communism, social conservatism, nationalism, cult of the leader, rejection of immigration and cultural diversity, historical revisionism, use of symbols.
– Remember the contrasting narratives around the right in Spanish collective memory.
– Challenges and controversies of collective memory in relation to the right and extreme right in Spain:
- Amnesty and reconciliation during the transition: It has been the subject of controversy since the crimes of the Franco regime were not criminally prosecuted and impunity was favoured. Some believe that this favoured a peaceful democratic Transition.
- Recognition of victims of Francoism: There have been debates about the exhumation of mass graves, the identification of missing people and the construction of commemorative monuments. Some sectors argue that it is necessary to confront the past more directly, while others believe that these initiatives can fuel tensions and divisions in society.
- Political instrumentalisation of memory and political polarisation: There is no common narrative among the entire society or political parties. The extreme right continues to praise significant aspects of Franco’s regime.
– There have been significant changes in the collective memory of the right in Spain at key moments in recent history such as the transition and the entry of democracy.
- Transition to democracy: reconciliation and amnesty policy 1975-1982: This affected collective memory by influencing the way past events were addressed and how the narrative about the right was constructed. Some sectors celebrated the Transition as a success in building a stable democracy, while others criticised the lack of accountability for human rights violations during the dictatorship.
- Entry into the European Union 1986: European integration was perceived as a step towards modernization and the consolidation of democracy, and this affected the way in which the participation of the right in this process was valued.
- Right-wing governments (1996-2004 and 2011-2018): The policies implemented during these governments and associated events, such as the 2008 economic crisis, influenced the perception of the right in terms of its economic and social management.
- Economic crisis and protest movements (2008-2014): Criticism was generated of the policies implemented by right-wing governments in that period, and this contributed to changes in the way in which the actions of the right in the period were remembered and evaluated. political and economic sphere.
Afterwards, the debate on the Law of Historical Memory in the Spanish state continued, taking into account the following points: (i) Law of historical memory in Spain (ii) How has this law progressed after a year? (iii) What resistance has there been to this law? (iv) How should the memory activities and policies should be?
Law of historical memory in Spain
– It is based on the principles of truth, justice, reparation and guarantee of non-repetition, expressly vindicates the Transition and the defense of democratic values, and condemns for the first time the military coup of July 1936 and the Franco dictatorship.
– All victims at the center of public action, creating a registry and census of victims to give them visibility, among other measures.
– Placing Spain at the same level as other European democracies and adjusting our country to the principles of international law.
How has this law progressed after a year?
– Budget used the first year: 13.9 million euros.
– Sanctions. Infractions (minor, serious and very serious) are classified for non-compliance and their respective sanctions. The State opened a file against the Spanish Falange for the dissemination and publicity of the events of 20-N (anniversary of the dictator’s death)
– Actions were promoted such as the exhumation of remains, the suppression of street names or the removal of symbols of the dictatorship. Furthermore, and this is an issue that has ended up being very relevant, the 2007 law served as an incentive and reference for up to 13 Autonomous Communities to approve legal regulations on the matter within their scope.
What resistance has there been to this law?
– Problems for the right/far-right parties PP AND VOX: They dismantle the legal framework of protection for the victims of Francoism wherever they govern. They fill the courts with appeals against the application of a law, opposing the removal of statues, street names and Francoist vestiges and exhumations so that others receive the remains of their loved ones.
– The regional government pacts with Vox, which in this case maintains an argument identical to that of the PP, already include the suppression of regional regulations on the matter.
– The Government works in collaboration with the autonomous and local communities, through the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces to design four-year plans that allow the greatest number of victims to be rescued. Some communities governed by the PP have collaborated “reluctantly” in this process and have detected a change for the worse when the extreme right has entered those regional executives.
– With regard to the Memory Laws and although their promoters do not mention it, it is a completely useless measure because the annulment of an autonomous law cannot prevent the application of State Law 20/2022 on Democratic Memory that remains. It is evident that the repeal project formulated with the utmost urgency by the reaction bloc is a mere propaganda maneuver without real content.
– Experts such as United Nations Commissioner Pablo de Greiff, who advised the Government in the drafting of the memory law, describe it as an “absolute anomaly” and recall that in the European environment there is legislation that prevents the advocacy of hatred and criminalizes it. denialism.
What should the memory activities and policies be?
– We must advance, consolidate, innovate.
– Memory policies in a post-transitional context. The new generations have not experienced the Civil War or Francoism, but neither has the Transition or the first years of democracy. Education, training and awareness must be at the center. Policies today cannot be the same as they should have been in the eighties.
– We are not facing an exercise in nostalgia, but rather we are opening a horizon of present and future, of articulation of a democratic civic culture. The present must be understood from
a historical and human rights perspective to build and reconstruct social citizenship.
– We must decline democratic memories in the plural. We are not here to construct a single historiographic truth but to advance in the deffense of human rights, the culture of peace and fraternity. In complex and diverse societies, with different sensibilities, experiences and origins, democratic memories are also, for example, those of diasporas and citizens born outside the State or their descendants.
– The challenge is to move from resistance to innovation, from nostalgia to building the future: promoting situated democratic memory policies.
– Democratic memory, in short, to move towards more inclusive, tolerant and coexisting societies.