Spain marks 50 years since Franco's death on Thursday with a quiet observance, but Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez took the moment to remind citizens of the value of democracy and the dangers of forgetting the past.
In an opinion piece for elDiario.es, Sánchez reflects on Spain's "almost unique" democratic progress over the past five decades, noting how the country had transformed from a repressive dictatorship into a full democracy, and from a poor, isolated nation into one that is prosperous and integrated in the world. Yet he stresses that these freedoms were not guaranteed, they were "wrenched from us for so many years" and maintained through the resilience and determination of the Spanish people.
"Democracy didn't fall from the sky"
"Democracy didn't fall from the sky," Sánchez writes. "Much remains to be done to forge the Spain we want and that we can be: a place of more opportunity; more rights and less inequality. Being conscious of all that is what will help us move forward and improve. And that is why it is precisely now, when some idealise authoritarian regimes and cling to the nostalgia of a past that never was, that we must step forward in defence of freedom."
The anniversary comes amid growing concern that younger generations know little about the dictatorship. Recent polls (here and here) show that more than 21% of Spaniards view the Franco era positively, and nearly a quarter of those aged 18 to 28 believe authoritarian rule can sometimes be preferable to democracy.
While Sánchez's government organized a year-long series of events to commemorate the post-Franco transformation, no official ceremonies were held on Thursday itself, to avoid the appearance of celebrating the dictator. Efforts continue to address Spain's historical memory: the Valley of the Fallen has been renamed the Valley of Cuelgamuros and designated a "place of memory," a government inventory is being compiled of assets seized by Franco's regime, and the Francisco Franco National Foundation is being dissolved so its archives can be made public.
Opposition parties, including the conservative People's Party and far-right Vox, criticized the government's initiatives. Vox dismissed the anniversary programs as "absurd necrophilia that divides Spaniards."
Spain's transition to democracy began after Franco's death in 1975, with the first free elections in 1977 and a new constitution approved in 1978, yet the country still grapples with the legacy of the civil war, which left more than 500,000 dead and hundreds of thousands exiled, with thousands of victims still buried in unmarked mass graves.