Overview

• The government published in the official gazette on Tuesday the initiation of the file to declare Pazo de Meirás a Lugar de Memoria Democrática under the 2022 law.
• The administration says it will publish the initiation for the Illa de San Simón and San Antón on Wednesday, citing its use as a Francoist penal colony with more than 5,600 detainees and over 517 documented deaths.
• The process foresees up to 12 months to define protections and interpretation, including plaques, signage, and audiovisual and digital resources explaining the repression and expropriations linked to the site.
• Memorialist groups protested at an institutional event at Meirás, arguing the state sidelined their 2024 request after letting it lapse as the government opened the procedure de oficio; the Secretary of State pledged their role in the next steps.
• The property returned to state ownership in 2020 after a court ruling, yet finality awaits the Supreme Court’s decision on the Franco family’s appeal, with officials citing the building’s poor condition to keep interior visits suspended.