The Spanish government has now approved the new Democratic Memory bill, which includes measures to find and exhume victims of Franco repression, makes it illegal to extol Francoism and declares null and void convictions handed down for people’s political beliefs or sexual orientation. It will also convert the Valley of the Fallen into a cemetery for the remains of people who were killed on both sides of the war. Political parties on the far right have vowed to oppose the new law, which has yet to be voted on by the Spanish Congress before coming into force. Some people in the historical memory movement do not believe the new bill goes far enough, but it goes further than ever before. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez says it will mean that Spain has settled a historic debt with its past, and it is a necessary law “which will enables us to be a better country”.
