The Historical Memory Act and Its Implementation

Resumen

As previously explained, following the dictator Franco's death, many different measures were adopted with the aim of restoring and rehabilitating the rights for those who had long been deprived of them. It is, however, important to highlight the fact that these measures had a specifically restitutional character. Taking this into consideration, it is evident that from the beginning of the democracy in Spain there were many different legislative initiatives aimed at offering appropriate reparations to those who had been victims, first in the Civil War and then during the dictatorship. It was not, however, until the arrival of the seventh legislature (2000–4) that some members of Parliament started to take action and to demand a different kind of proposal that focused on the acknowledgement of dignity and honour, the recognition of moral obligations, and the offering of public apologies by the Spanish State and finally culminating in the recognition of historical memory. As Davis observes, at that time it seemed that Spain was finally recovering its memory by breaking the pacto del olvido. As already mentioned, it was not until 2002 that a decision was taken in the Spanish Parliament to officially condemn Francoism and that the Interdepartmental Commission for the Study of the Situation of the Victims of the Civil War and Francoism (hereinafter the Interdepartmental Commission) was finally created. The time had come to end the silence and to settle the outstanding debt with the victims. It is particularly relevant to underline the significant role played by the Interdepartmental Commission, even though it has been criticised by some NGOs. This Commission held a series of meetings with 36 associations and organisations involved in dealing with the Civil War and the dictatorship or that worked in related fields. Demands were presented from different perspectives. The most important of these was for the rehabilitation of people who had been convicted by special judicial or administrative bodies and for the decisions of such trials to be declared null and void. There were references to a number of very specific cases, such as those of Lluis Companys, Juan Bautista Peset and Blas Infante, as we shall see below.