Congress approved on Tuesday the start of the examination of a PSOE bill aimed at dissolving associations advocating Francoism. The text moved forward thanks to the support of the investiture bloc and the PP, which despite a speech full of insults and reproaches against the socialists on the platform, ended up supporting the consideration of the text. In total, 314 votes for and rejection from Vox.
The initiative comes from the Socialist Party, which intends with this text to respect one of the provisions of the law on democratic memory approved during the last legislature, which urged Congress to draw up a law to dissolve the associations advocating Francoism.
Concretely, the text that the Lower House took into consideration this Tuesday modifies the law of associations so that the apology of the regime of Francisco Franco constitutes a reason for dissolution, “either by praising the coup d’état of 1936 or the dictatorship which followed, either by exalting its leaders. »
And also “when there is contempt and humiliation of the dignity of the victims of the 1936 coup d’état, the Spanish Civil War or the Franco regime, or direct or indirect incitement to hatred or violence against them in due to their condition as such.
The law provides that the Public Prosecutor’s Office will be responsible for taking the necessary measures to dissolve associations that engage in this type of act.
“We arrived late but we arrived, and we do so with conviction and an invitation to work together, contributing to the expansion of the constitutional pact which has among its axes the development of the right of association”, defended at the podium the socialist deputy Raúl Díaz. , who called on the rest of the inauguration partners to vote in favor of this initiative. The starting point “is not bad”, he declared, while arguing that he has not given up on all democratic parties adhering to this pact, looking at the PP.
“Today we are talking about the fundamental problem,” said the MP. “Yes or no? It is important and I hope it will be clear. Just as they clearly saw dictatorial regimes even in Pedro Sánchez, we will see if they are able to see an iota in the Franco regime” , he quipped.
The PP ignites the debate by talking about “corruption” and ETA
If the PSOE deputy was waiting for the PP to take a position on this Tuesday’s proposal, the deputy Jaime de Olano responded to him at the start of his intervention. “There is a case. There is the Begoña Gómez case. There is a case of corruption of the Sánchez Gómez couple,” he began referring to the legal file that affects Pedro Sánchez’s partner. He continued to speak on this subject until the Vice President of Congress, Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez de Celis, challenged him on this subject, since the regulations require deputies to stick to the issues debated at each point .
At the end of his speech, Olano picked up one of the topics of the week, which is generating intense headaches within the PP. The amendment that they supported a few weeks ago in Congress to validate the sentences of Spanish prisoners served abroad and which will lead, if definitively approved, to the early release of several ETA prisoners. “It is in your power to ensure that this ignominy does not happen, it is in your power to withdraw this law without misleading amendments. Even Mr. de Santos Cerdán is capable of understanding it,” he told the Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, whom he then described as a “scoundrel”. “What kind of moral scum has Sánchez transformed the PSOE into?” asked the PP deputy.
The tone of the intervention led the socialist deputy Montserrat Mínguez to ask Gómez de Celis to remove the insults from the session journal. “We understand that it is not a good day, but less insults and more reading of the amendments,” Mínguez told the PP. When the vice president of Congress asked that the insults be removed, PP spokesperson Miguel Tellado shouted “mafia” at him from his bench.
Olano devoted almost no time to debating the initiative and did not even advance the meaning of his vote. He accused the PSOE of being obsessed with Francoism and of presenting these types of initiatives to “hide its true intentions”. “They are doing everything they can to keep Franco’s memory alive,” he said.
The party that has clearly expressed its vote is Vox. MP Ignacio Hoces questioned any historical consensus on the civil war and Francoism and accused the PSOE of being “directly responsible” for the war and being linked to dictatorships.
“If you come here in favor of banning and dissolving certain associations, essentially because they are linked to episodes of coups and crimes of dictatorship, if we do not want to participate in discrimination intolerable, we should dissolve the associations and foundations linked to your politics. also to the Communist Party and the separatists,” he declared, before accusing the PSOE of “encouraging divisions.”
Despite the tumultuous debate, the PP ended up supporting the treatment of the law and announced that it would present amendments during the parliamentary process.
Junts keeps the mystery until the end
All groups present at the inauguration showed their support for the initiative, with the exception of the PP and the Junts. Carles Puigdemont’s party had already been critical during the development of the Democratic Memory Law. “Junts did not support it because it was insufficient. When it comes to democratic memory, the Spanish State continues to legislate consciously. This was evident in the law on historical memory of 2007, which did not prohibit associations claiming to support Francoism. And at the dawn of the 21st century, it was incapable of forcefully defining the Franco dictatorship as fascist,” recalled MP Josep Maria Cervera, who described this proposal as “insufficient”. “They need a lot more courage. Will they have it? » he said. An open door to support him which finally materialized with the affirmative vote of his seven deputies.
A different procedure to dissolve the Francisco Franco Foundation
This law will not, however, serve to dissolve the Francisco Franco Foundation, since it only concerns associations, which are governed by a regime different from that of foundations. The process to put an end to it is already underway after the work that the Ministry of Culture began this summer.
Last June, the department headed by Ernest Urtasun opened preliminary proceedings for its dissolution, requesting a series of reports from the State Secretariat for Democratic Memory and the Registry of Foundations under State Jurisdiction.
After this phase, the ministry will itself open a procedure with the communication of the file to the foundation and finally with a report to the General Prosecutor’s Office which will precede a Culture resolution. The final procedure depends on Justice.
The dissolution of the foundation is also part of the instructions included in the law on democratic memory, which included a provision to eliminate foundations “that do not pursue objectives of general interest or do not carry out activities contrary to those- here.”
