In the midst of the controversy caused by the advancement of the Democratic Memory Law, which is expected to come into force at the end of this summer, several socialist politicians who were part of the Government in the last years of the Transition and who worked during the first steps of democracy, met yesterday in the Cánovas Chamber of the Congress of Deputies to denounce that the text of the bill, in which EH Bildu participated, «goes against the process for which all Spaniards fought to that democracy be installed in the country.
Rodolfo Martín Villa, former minister with Adolfo Suárez, participated in the seminar; Soledad Bocerril, the first woman to occupy a ministry after the Franco regime and former mayor of Seville; Rafael Arias Salgado, Minister of the Presidency of the Government of Suárez and Aznar; Francisco Vázquez, prominent leader of the PSOE, former mayor of La Coruña and former ambassador to the Holy See; Pedro Bofill, opponent of the Franco regime and former socialist deputy; the architect Mariano Gomá and the journalist Victoria Prego.
Prego opened the meeting highlighting the importance of the scene of the solemn opening session of the Constituent Legislature on July 22, 1977, in which both politicians in favor of the Franco regime and the opposition met. “That reconciliation produced the first Constitution with the consensus of all the political forces with parliamentary representation” because, according to Prego, “until now, constitutions had always been processed against each other.”
“Those who did not kill but were around the murders are the ones who are now going to checkmate the Transition with the authorization and consensus of Pedro Sánchez and the Socialist Party Government,” denounced Pedro Bofill, who complained that “This is not the socialist party that I knew” and stressed that the Transition “surprised all of Europe” because thanks to it, “it was possible to draw up an open and modern Constitution in which all Spaniards fit.”
In addition, the former politician claimed that he feels “legitimized” to call for the PSOE to put an end to these practices that “are destroying one of the political organizations that have fought the most for freedom in Spain.”
For her part, Soledad Becerrill claimed the same idea as the rest of the speakers. «During the Transition, Spaniards from both sides met to make a constituent project. I was a witness to that and now the bill comes to tell us that what was done was little and wrong, “she denounced.
Arias Salgado recalled that an agreement has been reached with Bildu, a party that “has not yet condemned the crimes of ETA terrorism, shots in the neck and bombs committed in a fully democratic Spain” that were described by the European Parliament as “lesa humanity”. “Not a single letter in the text that states that terrorism put our democracy in check,” said Arias Salgado.
Paco Vázquez also showed his discontent with the Law: “We are outraged because this project takes away our voice and threatens the cornerstone of the Transition, which is none other than national reconciliation.”
Finally, Martín Villa branded the agreements with EH Bildu as “unspeakable” and wondered what the “nonsense” of the law would seem to victims of ETA such as Ernest Lluch or Gabriel Cisneros. “If Suárez or Carrillo were alive, this would not have happened as it is happening.”
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