It's already in the BOE: The Via Laietana police station in Barcelona has been declared a space of democratic memory by the Spanish government, Which means they'll put up plaques stating that torture was practiced there, but the National Police that occupies the building will not be relocated. Because, for the State, this isn't about memory but about power, specifically about the display and exercise of power, about continuing to have a Spanish flag hanging from a highly visible balcony in the capital of Catalonia, lest someone forget who's in charge here. The National Police were replaced by the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police force), and therefore, Minister Bolaños's argument that the officers will not leave because it's a "very important, central, and necessary police station for the regulation of citizen security" is a pure fallacy.
Memory is disturbing when the State went from being a dictatorship to a democracy overnight without a single police officer or judge being bothered for even five minutes for their participation in the death penalty or torture of political prisoners. The fact that it hasn't been until now, 50 years after the dictator's death, that signs will be placed, and that this is the solution of the "most progressive government in history," already indicates how interested the State is in reparation and its intention to ensure this never happens again. For Catalan society, especially for the history of Catalan nationalism and the labor movement, Via Laietana 43 is the scene of the crime, and to be able to turn the page on such a sinister page, the entire building would have to be made available for historical memory and pedagogy. Anything less is business as usual.
