Spain: law against consequences of Franco dictatorship proposed

From Associated Press:

MADRID, Spain — Parliament on Thursday began debating a law that seeks reparations for victims of Spain’s 1936-39 Civil War and the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco.

The bill, proposed by the Socialist government in July, would also ban symbols and references to the Franco regime in public buildings and asks local and regional governments to rename streets or plazas that are named after Franco or refer to his regime.

It also prohibits any political event at the Valley of the Fallen, a large monument near Madrid that includes Franco’s tomb and is the most potent symbol of his regime.

“Along with increasing the rights of victims, the bill aims to pay off a debt, a debt of injustice,” said Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega at the start of the debate.

The law says all victims of the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship will have a year to request reparations from an ad hoc commission that was created to draw up the bill.

A total of $26.4 million will be made available for payments.

Several political parties have proposed major amendments to the bill, saying it does not go far enough to restore the rights of victims and in condemning Franco and his regime.

One amendment proposed by three parties calls for the annulment of verdicts reached at trials carried out during Franco’s 1939-75 dictatorship.

Meanwhile, the leading conservative opposition Popular Party has called for the bill to be thrown out altogether, arguing that it reopens old wounds.

The bill, known as the Historic Memory Law, is expected to get past an initial vote allowing it to be processed by Parliament but it is likely to take several months before it is finally approved.

The measure follows a growing movement in recent years by families seeking a proper burial for thousands of relatives executed by Franco’s forces and supporters during and after the Civil War and who were buried in unmarked graves.

On Thursday, while the reparations debate was taking place in parliament, the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory filed a complaint at the National Court, asking it to investigate the disappearance of 30,000 people during the Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship.

Clergy killed in Spanish civil war: here.

Spanish author Manuel Vazquez Montalban vs. the Franco dictatorship: here.

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