• Bildu Congress celebrates the new Memory Law: "We are going to put in check the story of an exemplary Transition"

  • Politics The Democratic Memory Law fuels the debate between the two Spains

Historical figures of the PSOE, such as the former president of the Senate,

Juan José Laborda

, and the former Minister of Health and Defense,

Julián García Vargas

, have signed a manifesto against the Democratic Memory Bill of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, considering that it "misrepresents" the "great constitutional pact" of 1978.

The manifesto released this Monday is an initiative of the

Association for the defense of the values ​​of the Transition

, which emerged during the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in opposition to the 2007

Historical Memory Law

and to which people of "different political origins belong". ".

Among the signatories of the manifesto are historical figures from the PSOE such as the former presidents of the Senate Juan José Laborda and

Javier Rojo

, the former Minister of Health and Defense Julián García Vargas, the former deputy

Luis Berenguer

and the former Minister of Health and current president of the

Foundation Gregorio Peces Barba

,

Julián García Valverde

.

The director of the Royal Academy of History

,

Carmen Iglesias

, has also supported the writing

;

José María Múgica

, son of the socialist politician assassinated by ETA

Fernando Múgica

;

and former

UCD

and

PSOE deputies Luis Berenguer

and

Carmela García Moreno

, among others.

The letter denounces the pact reached between the Government and EH Bildu to approve the Democratic Memory Law in the

Congress of Deputies

, as it is, in the opinion of the signatories, an "updated expression of those who, precisely at that time, used terrorist violence as systematic method of action, with well-remembered dramatic consequences, without the said group having yet formulated an express condemnation of those crimes".

Specifically, the manifesto criticizes one of the amendments agreed by the Government with EH Bildu and Más País to create a commission to study human rights violations between 1978 and the end of 1983 against people who have fought "for the consolidation of democracy."

Previously, the

PSOE

and United We Can had included in the partial amendments jointly agreed the designation of this commission with the space somewhat more limited in time, from 1978 to December 31, 1982.

With the temporary extension of the commission's work, the year in which the

GAL

began , the terrorist organization dedicated to the dirty war against ETA, and the first year of the government of Felipe González, who has publicly expressed his discomfort with the law , although his name does not appear among the signatories of the manifesto.

"Our current democratic system is based on that great constitutional pact of 1978, which was endorsed by a very large majority of Spaniards. And, for this reason, we cannot accept that this pact is the subject of such an unfair distortion and so alien to historical truth, as makes the bill, even opening the possibility of extending the suspicious period of the dictatorship until December 31, 1983", the signatories point out.

In addition, they ask the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the parliamentary groups to withdraw the democratic memory bill, which is still being processed, "in order to restore the necessary consensus on this matter, thinking of the good of our coexistence and in the future of our democracy.

They defend that reconciliation was "one of the keys to the historical experience of the

Transition

to overcome" a long period of the 'two Spains', exclusive and confronted.

And they consider that the 1977 Amnesty Law

contributed "eloquently" to this

, which, according to the complaint, "seems to undermine" the Democratic Memory bill, which is expected to be approved by the plenary session of Congress on July 14, although it will not enter into force until September, after its approval in the Senate.

In the opinion of the signatories, this bill aims to "establish an official truth, protected by what is configured as a duty of democratic memory, which covers the two centuries of contemporary history of Spain."

However, they share the objective of "reclaiming the memory of so many people who suffered the consequences of the

Civil War

and the subsequent repression" and support "whatever actions the public powers take to locate, exhume and identify the disappeared".

Several politicians of the Transition asked to stop the processing of the law last Friday at the seminar

For harmony and in defense of the Transition

, organized in Congress by the

Spanish Political Transition Foundation

, which supports the manifesto.

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  • United We Can

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