The government agreement signed between PP and Ciudadanos does not even mention the policies included in the Law of Historical and Democratic Memory of Andalusia. Despite this absence in the document that should direct the first steps of the Executive, from the third meeting of the Government Council chaired by Juanma Moreno , the creation of a Commissioner for Concord came out, which, in reality, is a change of name of the Directorate General who held these powers in socialist governments.
The new name is a nod to Vox , the parliamentary partner of the Executive under the pact signed by the popular. Point 33 of said document refers to the reform of theLaw of Historical and Democratic Memory to convert it into the so-called Law of Concord , which Juanma Moreno himself defended in his appearances during the negotiations to form the Government of change.
As long as the legislative modification is implemented, PP and Ciudadanos have guaranteed that the current norm will be complied with. Elias Bendodo , spokesman for the Executive, said so when he announced the creation of the Commissioner for Harmony. Patricia del Pozo , Minister of Culture and Historical Heritage, also committed to it in the parliamentary commission of her department.
Del Pozo recovers for its area the policies of Historical Memory, where they were precisely during the time that this law was debated in the Andalusian Chamber, which, in reality, comes from the coalition government between PSOE and IU that led the Board between 2012 and 2015, first under the command of Jose Antonio Grinan and later under that of Susana Diaz .
The norm was approved in March 2017 in Parliament with the support of PSOE, Podemos and IU and the abstention of PP and Ciudadanos. In total there were 72 amendments presented by the parties that now lead the Government and none was included in the text.
The debate on the Historical Memory Law in 2017
PP and Ciudadanos agree on the substance of the text: they support the excavations to findvictims of the Civil War and the Francoist repression, but they reject the “revisionist” character that, in their opinion, the law has. Sergio Romero , deputy spokesman for Ciudadanos, was in charge of showing the position of his group, while the popular deputy Juan Ramon Ferreira , who is no longer in Parliament, was the spokesman for the PP in the presentation of the Law of Memory
” We unreservedly subscribe to the principles that inspire the law, of truth, justice and reparation”, explained the popular politician in the debate on the approval of the law, where I regret that the 30 amendments presented by the PP were ignored.
Among other initiatives, they rejected the norm extending its date of application until 1982, when the PSOE of Felipe Gonzálezarrives at La Moncloa after winning the general elections by an absolute majority. The popular ones remember that before there were some constituent elections, other general ones, some municipal ones and even autonomic ones. And that the Constitution was approved.
For this reason, his proposal circumscribes the application of the law to 1977. Ciudadanos , in addition, was against the inclusion of the period that goes from the proclamation of the Second Republic to the outbreak of the Civil War.
Nor do they agree in the PP with the inclusion of memory policies in the educational field, due to that “revisionist” character that, together with Ciudadanos, extend their defense of the Amnesty Law of 1977. “Citizens do not want any threat that smacks of ideologies, that sounds like discord or that brings to our retina the image of the reds against the blues, or of the blues against the red”, Sergio Romero illustrated in that debate, where he also asked for a boost to the Andalusian educational pact before including Democratic Memory among the subjects studied in Andalusian schools.
In that debate, both PP and Ciudadanos regretted that unanimity was not reached and that is precisely what the Minister of Culture, Patricia del Pozo , has asked to convert the Law of Memory into a Law of Concord. Two years ago it was not possible for the two center- right partiesagree with those of the center left. Vox’s entry into the Andalusian Chamber makes that consensus even more difficult.
