Madrid, Spain, Nov 5, 2007 / 09:56 am
The controversial Historic Memory Law which was approved by the Spanish Congress this week will require all monuments, names and public places established after the country’s Civil War to be removed, with the exception of artistic and religious symbols of the Church.
The original law, which did not get enough votes to pass, would have punished private institutions, including the Church, that did not remove symbols considered to be “pro-Franco”—a reference to the Spanish dictator who assumed power following the Civil War, including crosses and memorials erected in honor of the martyrs after the conclusion of the conflict.
Nevertheless, thanks to a last-minute change in order to get more yes votes, in its final form the law will allow the Church to invoke “artistic-religious” reasons for not removing commemorative symbols of the Civil War from its buildings.
The law explicitly points out that the law does not apply to memorials that are strictly private or when there are artistic, architectural or artistic-religious reasons protected by law.