Pedro Sánchez announces the granting of Spanish nationality to almost 170 descendants of members of the International Brigades who have applied for it

The president has also committed to accelerating the procedure for the dissolution of the Francisco Franco Foundation and the publication, before the end of November, of the catalogue of symbols and elements contrary to democratic memory.

National Music Auditorium, Madrid

Pool Moncloa/Fernando Calvo

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, announced that the next Council of Ministers will grant Spanish nationality to the almost 170 descendants of members of the International Brigades who have applied for it in accordance with the provisions of the Democratic Memory Act. "For the free and democratic Spain that we are, it will be an honour to be able to call them compatriots" and "by recognising this right, we are appealing to the very defence of democracy at a time of threat and regression throughout the world", Sánchez said.

At the closing ceremony of the 'Remembrance Day Event and Tribute to all victims of the military coup, the War and the Dictatorship', held in Madrid's Auditorio Nacional de Música, the head of the Executive highlighted that the progressive coalition government assumes this commitment along with two other "tasks": the acceleration of the procedure to judicially request the dissolution of the Francisco Franco Foundation and the approval by the Council of Ministers, before the end of November, of the Royal Decree that regulates the Catalogue of symbols and elements contrary to democratic memory, "so that they are removed once and for all from the streets. Without excuses and without delay, out of common sense, because no democracy, least of all ours, honours coup plotters", he stressed.

And it does so in the face of the "slow but constant delegitimisation of democracy" that "begins by calling for revisionism and concord" and "ends up ignoring that in some institutional buildings torture was carried out until the very end".

Proof of this is also - he recalled - the data released a few days ago according to which more than a fifth of Spaniards think that Franco's dictatorship was good or very good, and which the president described as "terrible" and the result of "revisionism that seeks to muddy our history to cloud our present, and that cancels our future, given that it is frequently our young people who succumb to this discourse".

For Sánchez, "this offensive not only seeks to falsify history, but also to lay the foundations for demolishing the freedoms that we have worked so hard to build up. And we will not, therefore, give an inch in the defence of these freedoms," he said. In this context, he reaffirmed the binding force that is "the force of a democracy that does not forget and that cannot be taken for granted because it can be lost, and which, today more than ever, must be defended".

Pool Moncloa/Fernando Calvo

The Transition: the triumph of ordinary people who fought for democracy and for their freedom

During his speech, and after participating in the presentation of eighteen 'Declarations of reparation and recognition' to victims and groups, the President of the Government of Spain pointed out that the true meaning of the event was "not only to honour the memory of the victims" of the military coup, the war and the dictatorship, but also "to recognise their contribution to this free Spain, in which, with much effort and sacrifice, democracy was finally possible".

"Those who steered that difficult Transition undoubtedly contributed to that task", he continued. It was a process that was neither idyllic nor peaceful and whose outcome did not fall from the sky, but was the triumph of ordinary people who fought for democracy and their freedom. To all of them, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

"Because they knew that democracy would not fall from the sky or arrive by decree: it had to be pulled up from the ground, built from below, with tenacity, with sacrifice, with generosity, and that is what they did. And, therefore, freedom - as they knew - was never a gift, it was a conquest of the whole of Spanish society," said Sánchez.

The president also mentioned that 2025 has been a special year to reaffirm our democracy as a collective endeavour and that "this has been the great purpose of the programme '50 years of Spain in freedom': to give voice and relevance to civil society, the protagonist of this entire transition to democracy".

He also praised the Spain of today, which "is a benchmark of modernity, a full democracy and an example of Europeanism". "We ran twice as fast to get not only to where others had gone, but to go even further," he stressed.

Ángel Víctor Torres

Pool Moncloa/Fernando Calvo

Ángel Víctor Torres, Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, also spoke at the event. Torres announced that the activities of 50 years of Spain in freedom "will not end when 2025 comes to an end", but "we will continue to recognise all those people, institutions and groups who fought for democracy".

He also referred to the need for young people to learn about our recent past, because "50 or 100 years is nothing" and at the moment "the same denialist, regressive, anti-democratic, visceral, sexist, racist and homophobic messages that were heard in dark times are proliferating," he warned. We hear "intentional lies and speeches that threaten the system of freedoms," and therefore, it is time to highlight the figures and people who dedicated their lives "or even lost them" so that we have democracy today.

List of those honoured

The eighteen reparation diplomas were awarded to the following individuals and groups: Federico García Lorca, María Luisa Ramos Barril, Vicente Rojo Lluch, María Juana Moliner Ruiz, Antonio Menchén Bartolomé, Margot Moles Piña, Manuel Pina Picazo, Diego José Paulino Ventaja Milán, Joaquín Moreno Tormos, Josefina Samper Rojas, Melchor Rodríguez García, Ana Belén Pintado Lucas Torres, Pilar Villora García, Manuel Ciges Aparicio, Ana María Gómez González ("Maruja Mallo"), Cristino Gómez González ("Cristino Mallo"), Luis Buñuel Portolés and the 12 seamstresses of the Víznar grave.

On behalf of the Government of Spain, the event was attended by the Second Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Work and Social Economy; the Third Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge; the Minister for the Presidency, Justice and Parliamentary Relations; the Minister for Defence; the Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda; the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, and the Minister for Youth and Children.

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