The curtain rises. Més por Mallorca spokesperson Lluís Apesteguia reminds the Balearic president, Marga Prohens of the PP, who broke the pact to maintain the democratic memory law after the agreement they had reached in December with the left-wing parties. The Balearic Government has now supported a Vox proposal to repeal it. President Prohens responds to MP Apesteguía, saying, "The dictator Franco died before you and I were born, and the only ones who chat are those on the left." The curtain closes.
Obviously, this isn't a joke, nor is it funny. But scenes like this, which took place this week, are systematically repeated in our political days. Arguments that fall under their own absurd weight are considered valid by a debate that should be more mature and, above all, more demanding. Because if what we're talking about is leaving behind everyone who died before us, I can think of a long list of national celebrations that could disappear, not to mention all the religious ones, which can't even be certified as true. But that's where the debate lies. If the truth of what happened is each person's version of events. Like what they're still trying to pass off as an "exemplary Transition." Although who knows what examples they've been referring to all their lives.
In the debate on the Balearic Islands, if it can even be considered as such, a far-right MP also complained that the law of democratic memory doesn't recognize "the victims of both sides." Because, as everyone knows, Franco won the elections. I think there's some confusion about Germany. But since they all died before we were born... (not my case). With this logic, we're one step away from creating a law commemorating the dictatorship, where there would also be a debate, surely a childish one, unless in dictatorships, debates are ended early and quickly. Pim, palmo.
What all these people are trying to do, successfully, is wrap up the skein and gaslight, to see if the majority of us can finally believe that life was better under the dictatorship and that if there was a civil war, it was to save the country from the depravity of Republican policies. Because the Republic didn't foresee swamps and the Women's Section was feminist. This alone justifies a coup d'état. By the way, and this isn't a joke either: the Balearic president has announced that the government is preparing a tribute to the victims of the Republican air force bombings on Palma during the Civil War. And all so the far right will vote in favor of the budget. This is the perfect excuse. But how they were born after the dictator's death will be an issue. generational.
We are at that crazy moment in history where history is turned inside out like a sock and repurposed to fit a foot that does best by trampling on human rights. We are at a moment in history where history is so far removed from some that they can celebrate the American genocide of 1492 with at least questionable festive pride and accuse of being tiresome those who insist on remembering a lord who ruled the country with a vile club for 40 years so as not to fall into the same clutches again. But it is clear that while some speak of the wolf, others see a lamb. And look at the extent of the paradox of the current moment: it is precisely the most nostalgic who want the rest of us to stop talking about the past.
