The construction of Spain’s first national civil war museum, the National Museum of the Battle of Teruel and the Civil War, has been mired in controversy and legal battles. The project has become a battleground between the socialist national government and the right-wing Popular Party (PP) and Vox, which control the Aragon region in northeast Spain, where the museum is being built.
The dispute centers on the representation of the Franco era. The national government’s 2022 Historical Memory Law seeks to formally condemn the repressions of the Franco regime. However, the Aragon regional government opposes this law and has successfully overturned it, replacing it with its own version, the Concord Law. This law, which has been adopted by three Spanish autonomous communities, aims to provide a more neutral representation of the Franco era, potentially undermining the national government’s efforts to acknowledge the regime’s atrocities.
The legal battle over the Historical Memory Law has cast a shadow over the museum’s development. Critics, including the national government and historical memory associations, argue that the Concord Law is an attempt to downplay, justify, or erase the horrors of the Franco era. The United Nations has even intervened, urging the Spanish government to uphold international standards regarding the preservation of historical memory on human rights violations.
The ongoing legal disputes raise concerns about how Spain’s civil war and Franco era past will be represented in the museum. A recent victory for the Aragon regional government resulted in a decision to include a memorial on the museum site with the names of those who died in battle, without differentiating between those who fought for and against Franco, in direct contradiction to the national government’s Historical Memory Law.
As the political battle continues, the fate of Spain’s first national civil war museum remains uncertain. The museum’s purpose is to shed light on a pivotal period in Spanish history, but the political divisions surrounding its development threaten to overshadow its potential to educate and commemorate.
