The new book published by the EUROM and Editorial Catarata analyzes the concrete and peculiar evolution of the laws and policies of memory in Spain over the last decade. It takes as starting point the year of 2007 when the Spanish Parliament passed the Law of Historical Memory and the Parliament of Catalonia signed the Democratic Memorial Law, the first two attempts to legislate about the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime.
However, this initial impulse was exhausted after a short time giving way to a period of lethargy or “hibernation”. What have been the real effects? What consequences and reactions have they aroused? What other initiatives have emerged since then?
In the last legislature, memory policies have taken a new course with the creation of a General Directorate of Historical Memory and the decision to exhume the dictator Francisco Franco from his grave in the Valley of the Fallen. In this context, the impunity of the crimes of the dictatorship, the state of the graves, the treatment of the Francoist symbology or the role of the memorialist associations is still in force.
