With an initial investment of 6.7 million euros in 2026, Barcelona City Council will launch a plan that seeks to reclaim "the city's democratic, social, and feminist tradition." To this end, it has presented a roadmap that will be rolled out until 2030 and which, among other things, foresees the creation of the Model Memorial Center, where the political repression, social conflict, penal control, and democratic struggles of the 20th century will be explained. It is, therefore, a new Center for the Interpretation of Terrorism, which will primarily focus on the Hipercor (1987) and La Rambla (2017) attacks, at the "Montjuïc Castle; and the Center for the Interpretation of Labor in Barcelona, in the old Fabra i Coats factory.

Catalan society has long struggled, through memorial and human rights organizations, for a public policy on memory that reflects the suffering experienced, the truth that is still denied, and the democratic future we seek to build. This struggle has been constant, cross-cutting, and persistent. And, among all the demands, one stands out with symbolic force: the redefinition of the building at 43 Via Laietana.

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.

The 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 philologist Blanca Serra, that with his sister, the historian Eva Serra (who died in 2018), who went to the Via Laietana police station four times—in February 1977, July 1980, December 1981, and March 1982—made it clear this Monday at the City of Justice that she doesn't intend to give up, but also that she's not very optimistic.

If the judges are an insurmountable wall to investigate the crimes of Franco's regime and refuse to listen to the victims, the Prosecutor's Office will do so. For the first time, the Barcelona Prosecutor's Office, together with the Human Rights and Democratic Memory Unit of the State Attorney General's Office, has opened an investigation into the torture carried out by Franco's police in February 1977. This is the complaint filed, in November of last year, by the Via Laietana police station: February 1977, July 1980, December 1981, and March 1982. Blanca filed a complaint with the Barcelona Prosecutor for Human Rights and Democratic Memory, Sara Gómez Expósito. Until then, all the complaints had been submitted to a court.

The memorial and human rights organizations that have been fighting for years for the current police station to be Via Layetana The organizations, outraged by the proposal made last month by the Minister of Justice, Ramon Espadaler, have called for a site of remembrance of resistance and repression, to refuse to give up. For almost four years, two Tuesdays a month, they have held 72 rallies in which 140 people have been able to explain, some for the first time, their time at the police station during the dictatorship, but also during the democracy. The organizations, outraged by the proposal made last month by the Minister of Justice, Ramon Espadaler, have called on all the city councils in Catalonia: "They should all get involved because there were detainees there from all over the country," says Pep Cruanyes, president of the Dignity Commission. For the moment, the city councils of Girona, Sant Cugat del Vallès, and Figueres, among others, have joined.

Memorial and human rights organizations that have been fighting for years to have the current Via Laietana police station become a memorial site for resistance and repression are outraged by the proposal made last week by the Minister of Justice, Ramon Espadaler. The police station was the headquarters of the Political-Social Brigade, a police branch charged with investigating and prosecuting opponents of the Franco regime, which had carte blanche to do whatever it wanted with its detainees. At the press conference in which Espadaler explained the events that should commemorate the 50th anniversary of Franco's death, he was joined by the Spanish government, the Catalan government, and Barcelona City Council. "There is no doubt that it should be recognized as a memorial site, but that is not necessarily incompatible with its current use," he said. The Spanish government already announced last year that Via Laietana would be a memorial site, but that the police would not leave.

A space for memory but also a place about the resistance and repression in the present, and where victims can be heard. This is Barcelona City Council's vision for Vía Laietana police station, according to the project to which ARA has had access, if they get the Spanish Ministry of the Interior to remove the Spanish National Police high commands from the building, alongside administrative and other personnel that are still headquartered there. So far it has refused to do so, and there is nothing to suggest that the ministry will give in. The Spanish government has even allotted €2m to improve the current facilities. But the City Council is not giving its arm to twist. "We are convinced that this is a space that has to be recovered for citizens and we know why we want it and what we want to do with it," says Democratic Memory councillor Jordi Rabassa. Neither Rabassa nor anyone from the council has been able to enter the headquarters: they have not been allowed.