Post-Transitional Justice in Spain: On the Struggle for Memory and the Role of Generational Change
Post-Transitional Justice in Spain: On the Struggle for Memory and the Role of Generational Change

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the absence of Transitional Justice mechanisms during Spain’s transition from Franco’s dictatorship towards a consolidated democracy, and the attempts to develop those instruments in the last two decades. The essay analyses the evolution from the 1977 Amnesty law and the ‘Pact of Oblivion’, towards the development of certain Transitional Justice mechanisms designed by the Spanish Socialist government through the Law of Historical Memory. The paper examines the social and political factors which have shaped the attitudes of the Spanish society when dealing with the country’s recent past, and explores windows of opportunity for action at a time of political and social change. More than four decades after Franco’s death, the need for memory, truth and reparation is still an unresolved issue which undermines the strength of Spain’s democratic system. The need to develop and implement more comprehensive mechanisms for truth-recovery, acknowledgement and reparation will be highlighted throughout the last section of the paper.

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