Spain criminalises support for Franco in bid to heal divisions

Glorifying Francoism or celebrating the Spanish Civil War are to be banned under new legislation aimed at sweeping away the dictator’s remaining pockets of support in the country.

The new Law of Historical Memory is an “update of original legislation created in 2007”, The Times reports, and includes fines of between €200 (£172) and €150,000 (£129,000). The heftiest penalties are reserved for “destroying evidence of burial pits”, says the paper, and for “the new crime of apologism” for Francisco Franco, who ruled for almost 40 years following the Spanish coup of 1936.

“This is the first law that expressly condemns and repudiates the coup and the ensuing dictatorship which ushered in the darkest period of our contemporary history,” Felix Bolanos, the minister for democratic memory, told a press conference in Madrid.

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‘White Terror’

Between 1936 and 1939, more than 500,000 people died in clashes between rebel nationalist forces led by General Franco and defenders of the short-lived Spanish republic. Franco declared victory on 1 April 1939, and went on to rule through the use of forced labour, concentration camps and executions until his death, in 1975.

The era of repression under Franco is known as the White Terror, and resulted in between 160,000 and 200,000 further deaths. More than 110,000 victims of the civil war and his dictatorship remain unidentified.

Yet while “the wounds of the conflict remain raw in Spain”, Franco remains a hero to some, with an organisation set up to “promote the dictator’s legacy”, the Francisco Franco Foundation (FFF), still active across the country, The Telegraph reports.

The newly passed draft bill outlaws such “expressions of support for the late Spanish dictator” and is part of an ongoing effort by Spain’s left-wing coalition government to “heal the divisions of the Spanish civil war and Franco’s dictatorship”, the paper continues.

The new legislation will force the closure of the FFF, which was set up by Franco’s only child, Carmen, who died in 2017. The foundation has condemned the planned law as “unconstitutional”, and warned in a statement that ​​“no one will be able to erase the enormous significance of Francisco Franco and his time both for what he avoided and for his achievements”.

For four decades following Franco’s death, Spain “sought to heal wounds by brushing aside many of the atrocities committed during the war and after Franco consolidated his power”, says The Times.

But under the new legislation, a special prosecutor’s office will be established to investigate crimes carried out during the dictatorship. Although the statute of limitations for prosecution will have passed, the office will be able to name perpetrators of any criminal acts. A DNA database will also be made public to help identify missing victims.

Convictions on political, religious, or sexual grounds that were handed down under Franco will be overturned too, while aristocrats will be stripped of any titles granted by his regime.

The legislation is “another milestone in the government's aim to heal divisions over Franco's place in Spanish history”, says euronews.

However, it is also likely to “spark a debate about freedom of expression, which is enshrined in the Spanish Constitution”, The Telegraph adds.

‘Friendly towards the Francoists’

Franco remains a divisive figure in Spain, with a decision in 2019 to exhume his body from a state mausoleum to a less contentious site triggering both celebration and opposition from various civil society groups.

The new legislation is also proving controversial, and not only with those who still seek to promote Franco’s legacy. Critics on the other side of the argument have warned that the planned law “does not go far enough to redress the wrongs of the past”, The Telegraph reports.

Campaigner Emilio Silva told the paper that “this law does nothing to pursue those who were responsible for the crimes of repression during the dictatorship and this prosecutor will just collect the testimonies of victims”.

“It will not overturn the 1977 Amnesty Law, which forbade retrospective prosecutions,” said Silva, who founded a movement to locate the victims of Franco's repression after his grandfather's body was found a mass grave. “It is very friendly towards the Francoists.”

However, Alejandro Quiroga, a history professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, told The Times that the law does serve the purpose of bringing “the interpretation of Spain’s fascist past in line with other European countries which also suffered under fascist dictatorships”.

“To a certain extent, it questions the model used in the transition that was based on forgetting the repression,” he added.

Whether the planned law makes it past the final hurdle remains to be seen though. Having passed in draft form, the legislation will now go to the Spanish parliament for a vote.

But far-right party Vox, which holds 52 seats in the Spanish parliament, has pledged to challenge the legislation in the courts.