Overview
- The 1977 Amnesty Law halted judicial reckoning for dictatorship-era crimes and helped entrench gaps in public understanding noted by historians and teachers.
- The government has advanced memory policies through a Ministry of Democratic Memory, expanded access to archives, removal of Francoist symbols, and the exhumation of Franco from the Valley of the Fallen.
- The Fundación Francisco Franco continues to praise the dictator despite repeated efforts by the socialist government to ban the organization.
- Former king Juan Carlos I’s new memoir portrays Franco favorably, praising his “intelligence” and “political sense,” which has intensified the current dispute over historical memory.
- A recent survey reports nearly 20% of 18–24-year-olds view the dictatorship as better than today’s democracy, a shift linked in coverage to Vox and social media revisionism, as far-right rallies were also visible during the commemorations.