After months forgotten in a drawer, the new democratic memory law has reached cruising speed. This Tuesday, a definitive text has been closed that has the support of a majority of Congress, after the Government has managed to attract EH Bildu to the ‘yes’ to the norm, and despite the fact that with ERC it has not yet been closed no agreement. Among the modifications agreed upon with some forces is the explicit recognition of the “policy of persecution and repression” against CatalanBasque and Galician during the Franco dictatorship.
PSOE, United We Can, PDECat and More Country have agreed to introduce this new point in the law that, first, must be approved in the Constitutional Commission next Monday, July 4 and, later, in an extraordinary plenary session of Congress. The plans that the Government is considering is that it obtain the approval of the Lower House in the first fortnight of July, with the support of the PNV, EH Bildu, PDECat, More Country and other minority parties. With this arithmetic, the ‘yes’ of ERC, very critical of the norm, would be unnecessary.
Among the agreed amendments, a change is also introduced by which it is established as victims of the dictatorship to “Basque, Catalan and Galician communities, languages and culture in their linguistic territorial areas, whose speakers were persecuted for making use of these”. Also included in this list are the “Catalan and Basque self-governing institutions and local corporations”. In this sense, it is noted that they will be “subject to the specific measures of recognition and reparation contemplated in the law”.
Expand the investigation
Among the agreements reached with EH Bildu and that have led the Aberzale formation to a favorable vote is the expansion of investigations into hypothetical violations of human rights until December 31, 1983. The text promotes the creation of a commission “at the state level, academic, temporary and non-judicial, independent” to help clarify the violations of human rights during the civil war and the dictatorship.
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In this sense, with the new wording, the creation of another technical commission is also proposed to prepare a study on the “allegations of violation of human rights to people for their struggle for the consolidation of democracy, fundamental rights and democratic values ” Until December 31, 1983. This means opening the door to investigate the actions of the governments of Adolf Suarez, Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo and the first year of Philip Gonzalez as president. The intention, therefore, of EH Bildu could be to investigate the action of the GAL.
Two other measures that the spokeswoman for EH Bildu, Mertxe Aizpurua, has considered particularly symbolic are the government’s commitment to adapt the San Cristóbal fort in Pamplona as a place of memory, used as a “Francoist prison for political prisoners”, and the cession to the City Hall of San Sebastián at the Palacio de la Cumbre, where they “tortured” the members of ETA Lasa and Zabala in 1983.