The Constitutional Commission of Congress has approved this Monday the Democratic Memory Law project with the support of the PSOE, United We Can, the PNV and EH Bildu, against the no of the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos. ERC has opted for abstention because it still seems insufficient.
The support of the two Basque parties has therefore been essential for the law to go ahead. Especially the one from the abertzale left, which has once again saved the Government of Pedro Sánchez after the PSOE agreed to carry the consideration of victim until December 31, 1983, to include the GAL.
This means taking the application of the law until eight years after Franco’s death, six years after the first democratic elections, five years after the entry into force of the Constitution and one year after the electoral victory of Felipe’s PSOE Gonzalez.
Specifically, the law mandates the Government to create, within a year of its entry into force, a technical commission to carry out a study on alleged human rights violations against people “because of their struggle for the consolidation of democracy, the rights fundamental principles and democratic values, between the entry into force of the Constitution and December 31, 1983”. That study should include “possible ways of recognizing and repairing this group.”
In addition, the PSOE and United We Can also agreed with EH Bildu to create an academic commission to “contribute to the clarification of human rights violations during the Civil War and the dictatorship.” Its function will be to collect testimonies, information and documents, and approve a report of conclusions and recommendations for the reparation of the victims in an “objective and impartial” manner.
In another of the previous agreements, an amendment was introduced to declare the illegality and illegitimacy of the courts, juries and any other criminal and administrative bodies created after the 1936 coup d’état, for persecution for political or conscientious reasons. The bill already included the nullity of its resolutions and the illegitimacy of these courts that will finally be recognized as illegal.
With More Country, and the PDeCAT, the PSOE and United We Can close another agreement that declares the Franco regime “illegal” and expressly recognizes that “the struggles of anti-Franco social movements and different political actors” gave birth to democracy.
With the PDeCAT it was agreed to articulate mechanisms and resources to evaluate the cultural and linguistic “repression and persecution” of the Franco regime, declaring “victims the Basque, Catalan and Galician communities, languages and cultures”.
And with the PNV, another pact was sealed to set a one-year deadline for the restitution of documents or effects to natural or legal persons of a private nature that are in the General Archive of the Civil War. Parties, unions or military units that claim ensigns, emblems or flags that are in the power of public entities may also benefit.
The PP, Vox, Ciudadanos and the deputy Carlos García Adanero, from Navarra Suma, who represented the heterogeneous Mixed Group on Monday, have remained against.
Once approved by the Constitutional Commission, the opinion of the commission will be raised to the ‘full broom’ that is expected to be held after the Debate on the State of the Nation next week with the idea that it will reach the Senate this same month of July and the entire parliamentary process can be completed in the autumn.
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