Nearly five decades after the death of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, Madrid’s Senate passed a law to exhume tens of thousands of victims of the civil war and Franco’s dictatorship from mass graves and give them a dignified memorial.
128 votes in favour, 113 against and 18 abstentions voted in favor of the Socialist government’s bill, which would provide state funding for the exhumations.
The Chamber of Deputies had already voted in mid-July. “Today we are taking another step towards justice, reparations and dignity for all victims,” Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on Twitter after Wednesday’s vote.
According to estimates by historians and victims’ associations, there are still more than 100,000 missing in mass graves. According to the “democratic commemoration” law, the search for the missing will be the responsibility of the state in the future. Among other things, a map will be created with all the mass graves and a DNA database of victims to allow their identification.
Half a century after the end of the Franco dictatorship (1975) and the previous civil war (1936-1939), memories still divide parts of the country. The right accuses the leftist government of wanting to reopen the wounds of the past with its actions.