Spain’s Remembrance Backsliding

Jorge González-Gallarza | 13th July 2022 | Brussels, Comment
5e258bafdf591-constitucion-espanola-1978-1

By directing the state’s remembrance policy towards score-settling, Spain’s left-wing government is dangerously reawakening a long-defunct conflict.

For four years now, Spain has been undergoing a stealthy form of regime change. Since taking office in June 2018 on a coalition with the far-left Podemos and a constellation of left-regionalist parties, the government of socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has sought to replace what Spaniards call their “regime of 1978” with a totally new dispensation. That regime took shape in the years following Franco’s death in 1975, as parties theretofore banned under the strongman’s 40-year rule agreed with pro-modernizing elements across the aisle on the country’s new democratic Constitution. That Constitution was soon after backed by over 90% of the voting public in a referendum and is still polling to this day, despite some less popular facets, at around 70% of approval among Spaniards. As a crucial condition of that transition, the previous year had seen the country’s best effort to bury the last remnant of the three-year Civil War that Franco’s nationalist camp had claimed power by winnin...

Subscribe to The Mace

Join the member community shaping British politics and stay ahead of what's really happening in the world of politics and public affairs, with expert analysis, breaking news, and insider insights from Westminster and Brussels. The Mace is the leading news source and resource for the government affairs industry, offering required reading and lobby intelligence for professionals.

To see what you are missing out on by not subscribing to The Mace, click here to download our full membership info-pack. This includes having no paywall on op-ed content or profiles/interviews, allowing professional profiles to be read with maximum impact and visibility by government, special advisers, MPs, peers, civil servants, and policy and political decision-makers.



Olly Robbins shows Whitehall is prepared to hold Westminster to account

Lucy Carrier-Pilkington | July 14, 2026

The former head of the Foreign Office is now taking legal action, putting the government's treatment of senior civil servants under fresh scrutiny.

Kemi is right to lift the white, Oxbridge fatwa and purge the Conservative party of non-Tories

William Cash | July 10, 2026

Overhauling the Tory candidates list is a shrewd political move which will allow her to put her own stamp on the party, and more importantly, shape its future,

Burnham is right: The future lies with devolution

Gill Morris | July 1, 2026

After Andy Burnham's first major speech since the resignation, devolution has been the word on everyone's lips - Gill Morris explains why it's the way forward.

Caroline Simpson: Why devolution needs this technocrat

Lucy Carrier-Pilkington | July 1, 2026

Amid the frenzy over who Burnham will choose as his chancellor, his shrewd appointment of Caroline Simpson to lead No. 10 North has been overlooked.

UK’s £4.7 billion Defence black hole: Dan Jarvis is inheriting a defence settlement Britain can no longer afford

Mace Magazine | July 1, 2026

Britain cannot afford to fall behind its NATO allies on defence spending, writes Jasset Harlech.

CPAC GB 2026: “Save Britain, save the West” 

Mace | June 30, 2026

Introducing the inaugural Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on British soil, a landmark expansion of the world's premier conservative networking brand.  

Merkel’s Legacy is in Tatters

Azeem Ibrahim OBE | June 30, 2026

How Angela Merkel Weakened the West and Handed Putin and Xi Leverage

Defence spending controversy aside, the UK cannot turn up to NATO empty-handed 

Lucy Carrier-Pilkington | June 25, 2026

Labour psychodrama is simply not as important as the UK’s diplomatic commitment to its NATO allies.

The UK’s unwritten constitution: There are no real rules

Mark Leftly | June 23, 2026

The timing and in what circumstances a leader should stay or go are in flux, argues Mark Leftly.

Britain is drifting towards Italian-style instability — it is time to learn from America 

Lucy Carrier-Pilkington | June 23, 2026

Love or hate the current American administration, at least they have a consistent electoral cycle where the choice of the electorate is upheld.