Urtasun announces the dissolution of four Francoist foundations

BarcelonaIn October, the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, He signed the procedure in accordance with the democratic memory law to extinguish the Francisco Franco FoundationIt's not the only one that may be facing closure. This Tuesday, during the Council of Ministers meeting, Urtasun announced that he will initiate the preliminary steps for the dissolution of the José Antonio Primo de Rivera Foundation, the Blas Piñar Foundation, the Ramón Serrano Suñer Private Foundation, and the Gonzalo Queipo de Llano Pro-Childhood Foundation. All of these foundations are opposed to democracy and glorify the dictatorship. Primo de Rivera was the founder of the Spanish Falange. Blas Piñar's political career began in Catholic Action, and he held various positions during the Franco regime, including member of the Spanish Parliament and national councilor of the Movement. In 1966, he founded the publishing house Fuerza Nueva, which ten years later became a political party with the same name and the motto "God, Fatherland, and Justice." Ramón Serrano Suñer was a minister in several of Franco's governments, and Queipo de Llano was a general considered a war criminal by many historians.

"A democratic government, worthy of the name, cannot allow the forgetting of all that has happened in this country to infiltrate and disintegrate our collective memory. A democratic government must demand, always and at all times, truth, reparation, and justice, and that is what we do and what it does."

The elimination of Francoist vestiges

During the cabinet meeting itself, the royal decree regulating the creation of a catalog of Francoist symbols was approved, as established by the Democratic Memory Law. The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, assured that the catalog is expected to be completed before the end of the year and that a technical commission will be created, in which the autonomous communities and local entities will also participate.

The Spanish government estimates that there are some 4,000 vestiges of Francoism pending removal. For example, Torres pointed out that There are seven towns where names with Francoist connotations are still preserved. One example is the monumental wrought iron pyramid of Tortosa, which was supposed to be dismantled in 2020 but is still standing. open legal proceedings.

This royal decree will establish the mechanisms for removing these symbols. Any entity, association, institution, or individual may request their removal, and once removed, their final disposition must be specified. Torres took stock of the three years since the implementation of the Democratic Memory Law and highlighted, among other things, the exhumed mass graves: "According to a 2019 study, there were 20,000 mass graves in Spain that could be exhumed, and we have already exhumed more than 9,000." Torres explained that 206 families have requested the recovery of the remains of relatives buried without their permission in Cuelgamuros, and that, to date, 458 remains have been exhumed and 31 victims have been identified.

The Minister of Territorial Policy and Memory has been highly critical of the fact that the autonomous communities of Aragon, Valencia, Cantabria, Extremadura, the Balearic Islands, and Castile and León have repealed the memory laws: "They have passed laws that they have mistakenly called laws of concord." The minister announced that on Wednesday he will present more than 400 activities to commemorate 50 years of democracy under the slogan "Democracy is your power."

In this regard, a giant banner in Catalan has been hung on Madrid's Gran Vía. When a journalist asked about the criticism the banner had received for being in Catalan, Torres responded that he didn't understand the criticism, because Spain is a country with several co-official languages, as recognized by the Constitution. "There will be banners speaking about democracy in different parts of the country, in Catalan, Castilian, Basque... because it reflects a pluralistic reality." "Catalan is a language with its own history," he asserted.