Neither oblivion nor reconciliation: an analysis of post-Francoist Spanish historical memory and Transitional Justice

Resumen

Authoritarian regimes seek their preservation through the systematic repression of anydissidence, leading to the perpetration of crimes against anyone who might challenge theregime’s values and legitimacy. Thus, when transitioning from an authoritarian regimeto a democratic system, implementing a comprehensive transitional justice process isimperative to close old wounds and ensure reconciliation and reparation between theparties. Francoism, like every authoritarian regime, was not exempt from committingserious crimes against its enemies for more than three decades. Nonetheless, when Spaintransitioned from a dictatorial to a democratic model, democratization was prioritizedover justice. Despite the Spanish reluctance to adopt all necessary transitional justicemeasures during the democratization process, the Spanish Transition has been claimedto be an exemplary case to follow and study. This article aims to overview the threelegal documents that were supposed to guarantee transitional justice to the victims andthe Spanish society: the 1977 Amnesty Law, the 2007 Historical Memory Law, and therecently passed 2022 Law of Democratic Memory. This article concludes that althoughthe 2022 Law of Democratic Memory has solved some of the flaws of previous legislation,there are still some key aspects of transitional justice which remain unaddressed