Two years after the entry into force of the Democratic Memory Law, approved in Congress, like its predecessor, the so-called historical memory law, after intense parliamentary debates and with the opposition of the PP and Vox, several articles remain pending execution. The publication in the BOE meant the immediate cancellation of all the Francoist sentences, as well as the elimination of 33 noble titles linked to the Civil War and the dictatorship, but other aspects that required subsequent development have not yet been implemented, failing, in some cases, to comply with the deadlines provided for in the law itself. “We are aware,” stated the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, “that there is still a way to go. But the commitment is firm.”

The Ministry points out the tight electoral calendar – regional and municipal, Galician, Basque, Catalan and European – as one of the factors for this delay. At the same time, some autonomous administrations governed by the right have promoted the repeal of regional legislation on the matter, such as Aragon or the Valencian Community, in addition to Cantabria and the Balearic Islands (in process), which has led the Ministry to prepare resources for the Court Constitutional – that has left the repeal in Aragon on hold―. Amnesty International, the State Coordinator of Support for the Argentine Complaint against Francoist Crimes (CEAQUA), and the Iridia and Sir centers[a] They have issued a joint statement in which they denounce the “slowness and ineffectiveness” of the implementation of the law. The four organizations criticize that the norm “does not eliminate the obstacles so that the crimes of the Franco regime can be judicially investigated” and, although they see the creation of a prosecutor for the Democratic Memory and Human Rights room as “positive”, they regret that it has not been initiated “no criminal action before the courts.”

These are the main milestones in the development of the standard and the tasks still pending:

Mass graves, DNA bank and state census of victims

The execution of the first four-year exhumation plan (2020-2024) of graves of missing persons from Franco’s regime covers more than 600 actions, according to the Ministry, and the recovery of the remains of some 5,600 victims to date, although some projects are still being carried out. . For this, more than 20 million euros have been mobilized through transfers to autonomous communities, city councils, associations and universities. The law established the creation of a state DNA bank to store the genetic profiles of victims of the Civil War and the dictatorship and their relatives, as well as “people affected by the abduction of newborns.” But two years later it has still not come into operation. At the moment, the Government has acquired software, called “Bonaparte”, for the management of all this data and the Ministry assures that access to the state DNA laboratories and the autonomous communities that participate in it is “in the implementation phase.” democratic memory projects”. Regarding the state census of victims provided for by law, the Ministry affirms that “the file migration process” is being carried out through the agreement with the Histagra Group of the University of Santiago de Compostela. 433,929 records have already been entered, mostly from military judicial files, and 16,528 files from the documentation of the old Carabanchel Prison have been analyzed. A collaboration agreement has also been signed between the State Archives and the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OPFRA) for the digitization of the file of republican refugees in France, with data relating to approximately 140,000 people.

Cuelgamuros Valley

The monument designed by Franco to immortalize his victory in the Civil War, the Valley of the Fallen, has been renamed the Cuelgamuros Valley. In April 2023 they were exhumed from the mausoleum the remains of the founder of Falange, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, in compliance with the law of memory, which established the “relocation of any mortal remains that occupy a prominent place in the premises”, as was the case, being buried next to the main altar. The family decided that he should not remain in one of the side crypts where thousands of victims lie, but in the Madrid cemetery of San Isidro. A multidisciplinary team of experts, in collaboration with the scientific police, began to intervene in those crypts in June 2023 to try to return to their relatives the remains of those shot under Franco who were transferred without permission from mass graves to the mausoleum. 166 requests were submitted, and so far 12 victims of the crime have been exhumed. box 198 murdered in 1936 in Aldeaseca and Fuente de Sauz (Ávila), 11 of whom were genetically identified and handed over to their relatives, as well as three other victims from Borja (Zaragoza). The State Secretariat for Democratic Memory has created a specific web portal about the monument, with all the existing documentation on its construction, with imprisoned labor. Among the pending tasks is the expulsion from the premises of the Benedictine community, opposed to abandoning the facilities, and the call for an international competition of ideas to convert the monument into an interpretation center, similar to the Navy Mechanics School (ESMA). ) in Argentina.

Inventory of seized assets

Article 31 of the law gave one year to prepare an inventory of assets seized for political, ideological, conscience or religious belief reasons during the War and the Dictatorship to, once audited, implement “possible means of recognition of the assets.” affected.” Sources from the Secretary of State explain that they continue working on this inventory because the specific working group on this matter has found “unpublished official documentation” that it continues to analyze, while reviewing pre-existing investigations carried out by different historians and researchers in different territories. In Andalusia alone there are nearly 60,000 files.

Forced labor

Article 32 committed the State to compensate victims who performed forced labor. To this end, the preparation of an inventory of buildings and works carried out by members of the disciplinary battalions and prisoners and a census of the companies and organizations that benefited from them was established with the ultimate objective of “promoting initiatives” by these companies. reparation and recognition to this group of workers. In this sense, sources from the Secretariat of State for Democratic Memory explain that a working group linked to the University analyzes the existing documentation on the companies that benefit from forced labor to prepare this census and once carried out, promote reparation measures in the private sector.

Queipo de Llano, Milans del Bosch and Morcardó

The remains of General Queipo de Llano, who on Radio Seville even encouraged the rape of Republican women, were exhumed in November 2022 in the Sevillian basilica of La Macarena. It remains pending, in compliance with the same article of the memory law that establishes that the leaders of the Civil War cannot be buried in “a preeminent place of public access, other than a cemetery, that could favor the performance of public acts of exaltation. , exaltation or commemoration of human rights violations”, the transfer of the remains of the coup plotter Milans del Bosch and Franco’s general José Moscardó in the Alcázar of Toledo. In this case, it depends on the Ministry of Defense, which has created a specific commission on the matter.

Franco Foundation

Another pending task in the application of the Democratic Memory Law is the elimination of the Franco Foundation. The norm regulates as a cause for the extinction of foundations, “the apology of Francoism that exalts the coup d’état and the dictatorship or exalts its leaders with contempt and humiliation of the dignity of the victims.” A decree law of June 2023 modified the Foundations Law to regulate the procedure by which the Protectorate can request the “judicial extinction” of this type of entities; last June, the Ministry of Culture began the procedures to initiate this fileand Congress recently approved taking into consideration, at the proposal of the PSOE, the modification of the association law in that same sense. The judges will have the last word.

Sanctions

One of the novelties that the Democratic Memory Law incorporated was the establishment of sanctions for non-compliance. Spanish Falange was sanctioned with a fine of 10,001 euros for the dissemination and publicity of the events of 20-N (anniversary of the dictator’s death), which suppose, according to the law, “exaltation of the military uprising, the War or the Dictatorship” with “contempt or humiliation of the victims or their families.” Falange has appealed the resolution through administrative litigation.

Grants of Spanish nationality

The Democratic Memory Law expanded the criteria for granting Spanish nationality to descendants of victims of Francoism. Thus, it will allow access to Spanish nationality to the children of Spanish women who married foreigners during the dictatorship and to the adult children of exiles – in the 2007 norm only minor children could do so – and by letter of nature, without having to renounce their previous nationality, for the descendants of the brigade members who prove continued work to disseminate the memory of their ancestors and the defense of democracy in Spain. Since the entry into force of the rule and until November 30, 2023, 102,868 nationalities had been granted, 49.7% of the applications submitted; 700 have been denied and the rest continue to be processed. The application period has been extended by one more year, until October 2025.

Democratic memory prosecutor

He Fiscal Council report on the Democratic Memory Law project, he defended the concept of “restorative justice” as a way to investigate the crimes of Franco’s regime and guarantee victims the right to know the truth and recover the remains of their relatives regardless of the possibility of punishing the victims. guilty, although five prosecutors cast a dissenting vote in which they maintained that the rules governing criminal law prevent such investigations and that the project created, therefore, “false expectations.” The ruling of the Supreme Court (2012) that censured the case opened by Baltasar Garzón for the crimes of the Franco regime, although it acquitted him of the crime of prevarication, points out as “issues impeding the development of criminal investigations due to extinction of criminal responsibility” the prescription , the death of the prisoner and the amnesty [en alusión a la ley de 1977]. To overcome this lack of access to justice, the figure of the Democratic Memory Chamber prosecutor was created, who can “investigate” human rights violations committed during the Civil War and the dictatorship, the Voluntary Jurisdiction law was modified and designated memory prosecutors in different Spanish provinces who now appear in the exhumations of common graves.