Condemnation of the Franco regime on the 70th anniversary of Franco's coup d'état
6.6.2006
ORAL QUESTION WITH DEBATE O-0058/06
pursuant to Rule 108 of the Rules of Procedure
by Luis Yañez-Barnuevo García, Miguel Martínez Martínez, Carlos Carnero González, Willy Meyer Pleite, Raül Romeva i Rueda, Ignasi Guardans Cambó, Josu Ortuondo Larrea, Bernat Joan i Marí, Inés Ayala Sender, Maria Badia I Cutchet, Enrique Barón Crespo, Joan Calabuig Rull, Rosa Díez González, Bárbara Dührkop Dührkop, Iratxe García Pérez, David Hammerstein Mintz, Antonio Masip Hidalgo, Manuel Medina Ortega, Emilio Menéndez del Valle, Javier Moreno Sánchez, Rosa Miguélez Ramos, Raimon Obiols i Germà, Francisca Pleguezuelos Aguilar, Teresa Riera Madurell, María Salinas García, Antolín Sánchez Presedo, María Sornosa Martínez, Elena Valenciano Martínez-Orozco, André Brie, Evelyne Gebhardt, Lissy Gröner, Klaus Hänsch, Karin Jöns, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann, Helmut Kuhne, Heinz Kindermann, Constanze Krehl, Jo Leinen, Erika Mann, Helmuth Markov, Tobias Pflüger, Bernhard Rapkay, Heide Rühle, Martin Schulz, Frithjof Schmidt, Feleknas Uca, Ralf Walter, Sahra Wagenknecht, Gabriele Zimmer, Jörg Leichtfried, Hannes Swoboda, Karin Scheele, Johannes Voggenhuber, Philippe Busquin, Véronique De Keyser, Mia De Vits, Alain Hutchinson, Marc Tarabella, Adamos Adamou, Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, Ole Christensen, Poul Rasmussen, Vladimír Maňka, Borut Pahor, Mojca Drčar Murko, Toomas Ilves, Andres Tarand, Kader Arif, Marie-Hélène Aubert, Jean-Luc Bennahmias, Pervenche Berès, Guy Bono, Marie-Arlette Carlotti, Françoise Castex, Jean Cottigny, Harlem Désir, Anne Ferreira, Jean-Claude Fruteau, Catherine Guy-Quint, Jacky Henin, Pierre Moscovici, Gérard Onesta, Bernard Poignant, Marie-Line Reynaud, Catherine Trautmann, Gilles Savary, Yannick Vaugrenard, Bernadette Vergnaud, Francis Wurtz, Satu Hassi, Henrik Lax, Reino Paasilinna, Esko Seppänen, Stavros Arnaoutakis, Katerina Batzeli, Panagiotis Beglitis, Stavros Lambrinidis, Diamanto Manolakou, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, Nikolaos Sifunakis, Georgios Toussas, Marilisa Xenogiannakopoulou, Alexandra Dobolyi, Szabolcs Fazakas, Zita Gurmai, Gyula Hegyi, Edit Herczog, Csaba Tabajdi, Proinsias De Rossa, Mary McDonald, Vittorio Agnoletto, Giovanni Berlinguer, Giusto Catania, Giovanni Fava, Donata Gottardi, Umberto Guidoni, Lilli Gruber, Luisa Morgantini, Roberto Musacchio, Pasqualina Napoletano, Marco Rizzo, Guido Sacconi, Mauro Zani, Nicola Zingaretti, Aloyzas Sakalas, Robert Goebbels, John Attard-Montalto, Louis Grech, Joseph Muscat, Thijs Berman, Sophia in 't Veld, Joost Lagendijk, Kartika Liotard, Edith Mastenbroek, Erik Meijer, Margrietus van den Berg, Jan Wiersma, Genowefa Grabowska, Bogusław Liberadzki, Józef Pinior, Francisco Assis, Luis Capoulas Santos, Paulo Casaca, Manuel dos Santos, Edite Estrela, Emanuel Fernandes, Elisa Ferreira, Ilda Figueiredo, Ana Gomes, Pedro Guerreiro, Joel Hasse Ferreira, Jamila Madeira, Miguel Portas, Sérgio Sousa Pinto, Michael Cashman, Richard Corbett, Bairbre de Brún, Robert Evans, Richard Howitt, Glenys Kinnock, Caroline Lucas, David Martin, Linda McAvan, Arlene McCarthy, Peter Skinner, Terence Wynn, Richard Falbr, Jaromír Kohlíček, Jiří Maštálka, Miloslav Ransdorf, Vladimír Remek, Libor Rouček, Daniel Strož, Jan Andersson, Carl Schlyter, Jonas Sjöstedt, Eva-Britt Svensson, Åsa Westlund, Johan Van Hecke, Panayiotis Demetriou, Marios Matsakis, Marie Isler Béguin, Alain Lipietz, Marco Cappato, Lidia Geringer de Oedenberg, Mary Honeyball, Pierre Schapira, Justas Paleckis, Riitta Myller, Giovanni Pittella, Bernadette Bourzai, Gary Titley, Vincenzo Lavarra, Neena Gill, Martine Roure, Glyn Ford, Alfonso Andria, Lapo Pistelli, Tatjana Ždanoka and Bronisław Geremek
to the Council
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic and the 70th anniversary of the Fascist rising of 18 July which overthrew the democratically elected republican government and sparked off a civil war which subsequently led to a 40-year period of cruel dictatorship. The adverse effects on the Spanish population of the dictatorial regime headed by General Franco that was established by force with the support and involvement of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy were to include a delay of several decades in Spain's involvement in the European integration project that led to today's EU.
The remarkable transition to democracy between 1978 and 1982 was based in part on the values and ideals of the Second Spanish Republic. To date, no moral reparation has been made to the victims of the coup and the period of dictatorship. More than one hundred thousand Spaniards were murdered between 1939 and 1975 and the remains of more than 35 000 people have yet to be uncovered in ditches and fields throughout the length and breadth of Spain, including those of the great poet Federico García Lorca. Torture and extra-judicial killings and other mass violations of human rights were common practice during the long period of dictatorship. Half a million Spaniards were forced into exile, including Juan Ramón Jiménez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and hundreds of thousands were imprisoned and detained in concentration and work camps, the last of which closed in 1962.
The Council of Europe recently adopted by a large majority a motion in favour of an 'international condemnation of the Franco regime'. This represented the first international condemnation of the regime. In this connection, the references which the Takkula report on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing for the period 2007-2013 the programme 'Citizens for Europe' to promote active European citizenship makes to the victims of dictatorships in Europe, among which the Franco regime in Spain undoubtedly occupies a regrettably prominent position, are in our view extremely significant.
The Members who signed this question wish to ensure that no Member State ever again undergoes a dictatorial regime such as that under which Spain suffered for four decades. We believe that the spirit of the European Union, based on the rule of law and the principles of freedom, democracy and respect for human right and fundamental reasons would take on even greater meaning if a veil of silence was not drawn over the atrocities of Europe's dictatorial regimes.
Does the Council intend to follow the international community's example and propose that the Franco regime be condemned at European level, and also to declare 18 July 2006 an official day of condemnation of the Franco regime?
Tabled: 06.06.2006
Forwarded: 07.06.2006
Deadline for reply: 28.06.2006