The clamp of PSOE, PP and Vox to not investigate the abuses of the military service in Congress
The socialists have systematically rejected the requests made by Junts and ERC alleging that it should be the Ombudsman who does it
MadridThe Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has not seen the 3Cat documentary that uncovers the abuses suffered by thousands of young people doing military service in Spain. She herself explained this Tuesday afternoon in the Senate when she tried to shrug off the pressure from Junts to clarify the vexations, torture, and rapes during mandatory military service in the Spanish army and, specifically, the 1,900 deaths that the journalistic investigation of the program Sense ficció estimates occurred for this reason. Both the first part of the documentary, broadcast at the end of 2024 under the title Et faran un home, and the second, Et faran un home: Morts silenciades,which expands on it with more testimonies, published in mid-2026, have led pro-independence and sovereignist parties to demand the creation of an investigation committee in Congress.
The PSOE's response has been to systematically deny it. This issue has been hovering in the lower house for over a year. At the beginning of 2025, ERC had already launched several parliamentary initiatives following the first part of the documentary and reported that the Spanish government had responded that it "had no record of the facts narrated in the documentary" and dissociated itself, alleging "that they occurred in the past." Given this immobility and with the expansion of the magnitude of the events with the second part, in recent months attempts to investigate have multiplied to the point that Junts insists every week, when there is a spokesperson meeting, on demanding that its creation be voted on in the plenary session. They did so again this Monday when the Junts members again reported that the initiative had not prospered because PSOE, PP, and Vox had once again voted against it.
"There have already been seven plenary sessions in which the PSOE has refused to move forward with this investigation commission," lamented the Junts members in a statement in which they accuse the socialists of playing a "double game": "It boasts of fighting the far-right while every week it votes jointly with it to continue hiding the abuses perpetrated during mandatory military service." The next day, the spokesperson for Junts, Eduard Pujol, denounced this in the Senate, lamenting that Robles "is dodging the issue." "Does she intend to rectify and face up to the abuses and deaths in mandatory military service?" he exclaimed. The Minister of Defense's argument was to pass the responsibility for the investigation to the Ombudsman, although she committed to offering "maximum collaboration" both with this body, if it initiates one, and with the justice system. Robles said she does not doubt a journalistic investigation that she "has not had time" to see and at the same time remarked that, currently, the army is a "modern and prepared" institution.
Who should investigate?
When last April the PSOE already held back, with an abstention in the Congress's defense commission, from debating the creation of this investigation commission, it used a similar line of argument. The socialist parliamentary group argued that the way forward should be to urge the Ombudsman to take action, as it has already done with victims of sexual abuse in the Church. According to the PSOE, it is "more appropriate" for the platform of affected individuals to reach an agreement with the State and the Ombudsman to investigate it with an "individualized management" of each case. The PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, added at a press conference that there were already too many investigation commissions underway and that "many of them" do not serve the purpose for which they are created.
The platform Trencant el Silenci, which brings together victims' families, then criticized the PSOE's refusal to support the initiative promoted by ERC, Junts, PNB, EH Bildu, BNG, Sumar, Podem, and Compromís, and branded PSOE, PP, and Vox as a "coalition of silence." Next Tuesday, June 16, they will be in Congress to request the parliamentary investigation commission and have arranged a meeting with the socialists to demand that they agree to change their position.
