On this day, a year ago, the repeal of the Law on Democratic Memory of Aragon was launched. This is not a day chosen at random: the announcement was made on November 20, the anniversary of the death of dictator Francisco Franco. The repeal of the said law was one of Vox’s demands to support the government of Jorge Azcón, support which would be broken a few months later, in July, following Vox’s demands on immigration.
The repeal of the Law of Historical Memory in Aragon was one of the conditions of the agreement between PP and Vox to govern the community and this was recognized by Azcón in his presidential speech. On November 20 they began the process and on February 1 they took it to the Cortes of Aragon for a debate, which took place with the vote in favor of the PP and Vox, the abstention of PAR and the votes against from the PSOE, the CHA, Aragon. -Teruel exists, Podemos and IU.
This measure was met with many voices against, from opposition parties to memorial associations, who consider it a “real social setback because it is a moral recognition for the victims”, even if they have always used the legal protection offered. by state law.
The repeal text provides for the suspension of the Census of Democratic Memory of Aragon, the Routes of Memory, the Inventory of Democratic Places and Routes and the Research Center on Democratic Memory. The Register of Aragonese Entities of Democratic Memory and the institutional web portal of the Government of Aragon on Democratic Memory are also deleted. In addition, actions in the educational field linked to democratic memory were canceled or “replaced with actions on the history of Aragon and the relevance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Spanish Constitution for the Aragonese ”, according to the text.
After the repeal, the government of Azcón announced a plan of concord in which no reference to the Franco dictatorship or the victims of repression during these 40 years of history is included. This plan contains 26 objectives, but does not establish concrete measures to achieve them. Victims of terrorism are specifically taken into account and the word terrorism appears ten times in the 26-page text.
The Concorde plan has also been marked by controversy since its announcement on April 5. A month later, the United Nations released a report saying laws like this one, called Concord, violated human rights law by ordering “the removal of multiple entities, projects, websites and historical memory activities concerning serious human crimes”. Rights violations” committed under the Franco regime and “planned or created in accordance with current state and regional legislation in this area”.
The government of Aragon rebelled against this UN report and Azcón sent a letter claiming that the writing contained “hoaxes” and criticizing the fact that they had not contacted the executive for its preparation : “If they had contacted the government of Aragon, they would not have done great things. Despite their errors, I understand that, influenced by the information that the Spanish government gave them, what this report says is nothing but a lie.
The legal and political process of this repeal and the concord plan did not end the conflict with the UN. At the end of May, Ángel Víctor Torres, Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, announced the appeal for repeal of the law before the Constitutional Court and assured that “this represents a violation of human rights, it withdraws the condemnation against the dictatorship and makes it much more complicated for associations and groups to exhume the remains of the victims of the Franco regime.”
Before reaching this appeal, Torres had invited the Government of Aragon to a bilateral commission to address the issue, but the Regional Executive refused to attend and sent a letter in which “the full constitutionality of the The above-mentioned legislative repeal is approved by Parliament. Cortes of Aragon” and considered that a bilateral Aragon-State Commission “would not make it possible to find a solution to the current jurisdictional divergence that would be satisfactory for both parties”.
The appeal of the central government was admitted for processing on June 14 and at the same time it was agreed to suspend the repeal law for five months, in accordance with article 161.2 of the Constitution, which provides this possibility when the Executive national contests the provisions adopted by the autonomous communities.
The Constitutional Court had to decide, as provided for in the Magna Carta in the said provision, to ratify or lift the preventive suspension once these five months have passed. The public prosecutor’s office requested its continuation, but the Cortes and the government of Aragon advocated the opposite, with the case falling into the hands of the progressive magistrate María Luisa Segoviano. However, the Constitutional Court only studied the issue a few days after the deadline. This means that since then, the repealing law has regained its validity and will continue to have its effects until the Constitutional Court pronounces definitively on this question.
