Like most Spaniards alive today, I was born after the death of Franco 50 years ago. Even for my parents\u2019 generation, the dictatorship that lasted from 1939 until 20 November 1975 is today a distant bad dream. Growing up, the stories I heard were mostly about the post-Franco democratic transition, a time full of promise and energy as younger people set about rebuilding everything from scratch.<\/p>\n
My mother, who was pregnant with me when she voted in the first free elections in 1977<\/a>, talks about that time as the happiest of her life. International media reporting from that year described \u201ca broad optimism\u201d<\/a> in a soon-to-be \u201chealthy, modern, lively nation\u201d.<\/p>\n Writing in October 1977, the philosopher and former political prisoner Juli\u00e1n Mar\u00edas commented<\/a>: \u201cThe Franco years seem incredibly distant; almost everything that seemed impossible has already taken place.\u201d It had been less than two years since Franco\u2019s death, and there was not yet a full democratic system or a constitution in place.<\/p>\n As in many European countries, those years were also marked by political violence and economic crises<\/a>. One of my earliest memories is of fear, confusion and radio bulletins during the attempted coup d\u2019etat in February 1981.<\/a><\/p>\n Still, looking back, it was extraordinary how Spain went from a poor, isolated, rural country to a dynamic democracy that, within a few years, outpaced most of Europe in terms of openness and social rights. In 50 years, GDP has multiplied by a factor of more than 15<\/a> in today\u2019s money, the value of exports has increased almost eightfold, and the number of employed people has almost doubled in a country that has gone from 35m to almost 50m<\/a> inhabitants. Same-sex marriage was legalised in 2005<\/a>, around a decade before it was recognised in the US, UK or Germany.<\/p>\n The transition to democracy was remarkably smooth given its pace; some of that was thanks to European funds and support. But in seeking to balance justice and reconciliation, Spain leaned heavily towards the latter. Few of the dictatorship\u2019s crimes were prosecuted, and as the years passed, amnesty turned into amnesia.<\/p>\n Relatives of victims of Franco’s dictatorship attend a tribute in Madrid, October 31, 2025. Photograph: Violeta Santos Moura\/Reuters<\/p>\n Former officials of the Franco regime were absorbed into political parties \u2013 mostly the forerunner of today\u2019s <\/strong>People\u2019s party (Partido Popular). There was no public reckoning for millionaires or big companies that sustained the regime and, by extension, decades of repression and human rights abuses. Spain even kept as head of state King Juan Carlos, who had been chosen by Franco as his successor in an almost \u201cfilial relationship\u201d, as the disgraced former king writes in a new memoir<\/a>. Juan Carlos\u2019s own role in the democratic transition and the attempted coup is still contested.<\/p>\n Today, the Franco era is taught in schools, but at the end of a packed history syllabus that many teachers have to rush through in the final high school year. It was largely absent from public debate until the centre-left government of Jos\u00e9 Luis Rodr\u00edguez Zapatero passed the first historical memory law<\/a> in 2007, and began removing Franco statues and other symbols, investing in national archives and supporting the search for the remains of those killed during the civil war of the 1930s.<\/p>\n Pedro S\u00e1nchez has gone even further, introducing new legislation<\/a> and implementing the existing law. The most symbolic gesture was the removal, in 2019, of Franco\u2019s remains and tomb<\/a> from Valle de los Ca\u00eddos (the Valley of the Fallen), now renamed Valle de Cuelgamuros, a mausoleum built by political prisoners on the outskirts of Madrid, where he had been laid to rest and honoured for decades \u2013 among his victims. A new project will transform the site, which for the first time will feature display panels, documentary artefacts and recordings<\/a> explaining its dark history.<\/p>\n This is significant, because openly and publicly telling the history of Francoism has been missing in Spain<\/a> for far too long. More important than removing symbols is explaining them. Spain does not even have a museum of national history, and it lags behind Germany, Italy, Portugal and even younger democracies such as Slovenia, in confronting its past and putting it on display.<\/p>\n Politicians on the right<\/a> are now resisting many of these efforts, with historical memory becoming yet another partisan issue. Even Spain\u2019s transition to democracy, once idealised and long a source of pride, has come under question as political consensus has fractured.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to This is Europe<\/p>\n The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans \u2013 from identity to economics to the environment<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n In Spain we are not good at dealing with the past, as other dark chapters in more recent history show, particularly regarding terrorism. But when you don\u2019t fully reckon with the past, it can return to haunt you.<\/p>\n My mother is often surprised and distressed in equal measure to see very young <\/a>people \u2013 even if it\u2019s a tiny minority \u2013 making fascist salutes or singing Franco\u2019s anthem<\/a>, or to hear leaders of Vox, the far-right party, making light<\/a> of the dictatorship\u2019s crimes. In the past few months, my mother speaks much more often about her own memories: running in front of the mounted police \u2013 los grises, so called for their grey uniforms \u2013 during protests at her university against the final executions ordered by Franco; whispering about her cousin crossing into France to meet political activists; and wondering about her long-lost uncle who may have been a victim of repression.<\/p>\n \u201cLife was grey,\u201d she would say now. She is shocked, as are many who lived through the dictatorship, that anyone in today\u2019s Spain could embrace that troubled past. Those people should know better. But they should have been taught better as well.<\/p>\n There is no danger in Spain of Francoism coming back, but forgetting history can make you take for granted the democratic freedoms that need constant vigilance and protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like most Spaniards alive today, I was born after the death of Franco 50 years ago. 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