The Spanish government declares the Via Laietana police station a place of memory (but does not close it)

BarcelonaThe Via Laietana police station is now formally a memory space, but will continue to host the Spanish National Police. Official State Gazette (BOE) this Tuesday published the Spanish government's resolution by which "the building located at Via Laietana, 43", headquarters of the Politico-Social Brigade during the Franco regime, is declared a "site of democratic memory". Contrary to what the memorial entities claimed and the Catalan parties, however, the formal resignification of the leadership will not imply the transfer of the Spanish police.

The resolution of the state executive recalls the dark history of the police station to justify the new designation. "Hundreds of anti-Franco activists passed through its unsanitary and overcrowded cells, suffering all kinds of torture during interrogations," it states. "A central node in the dense network of repressive spaces and bodies of the dictatorship in Catalonia, it has become a symbol of the systematic repression carried out." "It is essential to ensure that the crimes committed on this site [...] do not fall into oblivion."

For all these reasons, and in accordance with the Law of Democratic Memory, the Spanish government establishes that it will be necessary to guarantee the "durability, identification, explanation, and adequate signage" of the building, the "dissemination, signage, and interpretation" of the events that were committed, and the possibility of establishing a "point of recognition for the victims." "Likewise, the promotion of physical and virtual itineraries may be encouraged [...], with the aim of ensuring they are properly known," it adds.

Memorial and human rights organizations have been fighting for years to have the police station converted into a memorial site for torture and repression, but they consider this incompatible with maintaining the site as the headquarters of the National Police. The Spanish government, on the other hand, has refused to allow officers to leave the building, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior. In the words of the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, a few months ago, the station is "very important, central, and necessary for the organization of citizen security."

The closure of the police station has also been a constant demand of most Catalan political parties. All of this is a gesture of reparation for the countless horror stories of those who have suffered repression at the station. One of them, the philologist and independence activist Blanca Serra, became a member just two months ago. the first Via Laietana torture victim to testify in front of the Prosecutor's Office. "Young people should know what happened," she said.

At one point, it was even a demand of the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), which has made abrupt about-faces regarding the possible closure. In a press conference on Tuesday, the regional minister for Territory and spokesperson for the Catalan government, Silvia Paneque, simply welcomed the Spanish government's decision and expressed her "satisfaction" that the police station would become a "memorial space." "For the time being, that was the approach the Catalan government had and it has been achieved," she added, without clarifying whether or not it is necessary to go further.

"It is necessary for the National Police to leave the space"

Òmnium Cultural criticized the fact that, despite the declaration of the Via Laietana police station as a place of democratic memory, it remains in the hands of the National Police. "No real change is guaranteed: the National Police will continue to operate, and the only plan is to install a commemorative plaque. A symbolic gesture that shows the PSOE's lack of courage and perpetuates impunity," the organization lamented, calling for "justice and memory."

Jordi Rabassa, who was Councilor for Democratic Memory during Ada Colau's last term as mayor of Barcelona, considers the declaration of the Via Laietana police station as a place of democratic memory to be "a milestone for the memorial organizations and the people who have suffered repression, who have not stopped." "Now what's needed is for it not to remain just a formal administrative recognition or a plaque, but for the National Police to abandon the space so that it can be fully converted into a memorial site," says Rabassa.

Elisenda Alemany, president of the ERC municipal group at Barcelona City Council, criticizes the fact that "in any democracy," the police headquarters would have been a memorial site for years. "Via Laietana will not be new without a memorial site for those who fought for freedom," says Alemany. ERC made a proposal calling for the relocation of the police force to La Verneda or any other Interior Ministry office in the city to avoid having to make the function of democratic memory compatible with police duties. The proposal was approved with votes in favor from Junts and BComú, abstention from the PSC, and votes against from the PP and Vox.

The PP spokesperson in the Parliament, Juan Fernández, considers the declaration to be "the preliminary step toward removing the National Police from Catalonia." According to Fernández, the Vía Layetana police station "is not a symbol of Francoism," but rather "a symbol of the rule of law, of the legality of the Constitution" in the face of the "secessionist coup" of 2017. "We will not allow them to turn a symbol of justice and security into a propaganda center serving separatism," the spokesperson added.

Along the same lines, the Jupol union, the majority in the National Police, has condemned the Spanish government's decision. According to the union, the gesture responds to "political interests" and represents "a concession to the demands of the independence movement." They consider it "a direct attack on the dignity and work of the national police officers who serve Catalonia" and believe that the decision does not in any way respond to a criterion of "historical justice." Jupol demands that the decision be revoked "immediately" and urges the Interior Ministry not to use the police station as a "political tool."

A disastrous record since 1929

However, the police station's disastrous history began in 1929, a decade before Franco's regime, as recalled in the Spanish government's resolution published in the Official State Gazette: "Since it was inaugurated, at the end of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, it was the epicenter of repression against trade unionism and the Barcelona labor movement, to such an extent that it was known in labor circles as the bloody mill. From 1941, and until the arrival of democracy, it became the center of Francoist political repression in Barcelona," the document states.

The resolution, which tasks the departments of contemporary history at the UB and UAB and the Democratic Memorial of the Generalitat with reporting on the interested party, may make allegations to the declaration as a place of democratic memory. The Spanish government, in any case, has already made clear its position on the nature of the building, although this goes against the clamor of the victims.