Spain marks first day of remembrance for Franco-era victims of dictatorship

Spain marked its first-ever day of remembrance for Franco-era victims on Monday, established under the newly passed Democratic Memory Law.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hosted an event entitled "Memory is Democracy" which brought together families affected by the regime and several other top government officials.

"Today, we honor the many anonymous lives that were buried under a slab of unforgivable indifference. Lives lost in a cruel war or in the brutal postwar period that followed; lives broken by exile and deportation; the lives of the tortured and humiliated; lives mutilated by prison; those whose lives were lost or whose careers were cut short by the violence and bitterness of a dictatorship," said Sanchez.

During the Francisco Franco dictatorship-which lasted from 1939 to 1975, when the eponymous leader died, age 82-an estimated 140,000 civilians were forcibly disappeared.

After Franco's death Spain transitioned to a democracy, but under the so-called "Pact of forgetting," democratic parties agreed to avoid directly confronting his legacy.

That began to change most strongly in 2007, when the Socialist Party passed the Historical Memory Law. And just this month, the left-wing government went further, passing the Democratic Memory Law that aims to uncover the crimes committed under Franco and honor the role of those who resisted the authoritarian regime.

'PROGRESS AND DEMOCRACY ARE NOT IRREVERSIBLE'

On Monday, Sanchez said Spain still needs to work to "settle the debt of gratitude that our country still owes to those who committed themselves to a democratic Spain" and "build upon their memory a shared democratic memory. The memory of a society that longs to be at peace with its past to move towards a free and democratic future."

He said Spain has "paid a high price for freedom" and should "never take it for granted." Pointing to Russia and far-right movements across Europe, he warned that "progress and democracy are not irreversible."

During the ceremony, he handed out diplomas to prominent victims and their families who suffered under Francoism.

Those specifically honored included labor organizers, priests, and politicians who were killed during the Civil War of 1936-1939. There was also a member of the 13 roses-a group of 13 women who were executed by a Francoist firing squad months after the war ended.

Also among those recognized were a female writer and journalist exiled in Mexico, one of Spain's first LGBT activists who was imprisoned under the regime, and one of the many people who was stolen from their families at birth and given to wealthy Catholic families.

"Today is one of the happiest days of my life. I've been waiting 83 years for something like this to happen-since I was 3 years old and was insulted for being the son of a Republican," Luis Perez Lara, 86, told Spanish daily El Pais.

"It's about time this happened," said 90-year-old Benita Navacerrada, holding up a picture of her father, whose remains she continues trying to find. "The minister told me they are going to keep searching for him. I'm really happy."

Yet digging up Spain's Francoist past remains a contentious issue in the country, with Spain's main opposition party-the conservative Popular Party-promising to repeal the law that created this national holiday.