He culture Ministry has begun a period of prior actions in order to obtain the information and elements of judgment that may motivate the procedure to initiate judicial proceedings. the extinction of the Francisco Franco National Foundation.
The agreement has been signed by the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, in compliance with the Democratic Memory Law and within the framework of the functions of the Protectorate of Foundations under state jurisdiction, as indicated by this department.
Urtasun himself has highlighted in a video published on his social networks that It is the responsibility of Culture to “scrupulously comply” with the Democratic Memory Law. “This is how we have done it, this is how we are doing it today and this is how we will continue to do it,” has pointed out.
The minister has explained the process to follow from this step, until reaching the ultimate responsibility of his department of urging Justice to terminate said foundation, “judges having the last word“.
Culture has requested a report from the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory on the possible non-compliance with the Law by said foundation. This opens a period of information gathering in which the memory associations will also participate and, once the investigation is completed and with the prior report from the State Attorney’s Office, the ministry’s request will be made.
Specifically, Law 20/2022, of October 19, on Democratic Memory, establishes in its fifth additional provision that “There will be cause for termination when the foundations do not pursue purposes of general interest or carry out activities contrary to it.”
The Law adds that, “for these purposes, the apology of Francoism that praises the coup d’état and the dictatorship or praises its leaders, with contempt and humiliation of the dignity of the victims of the coup d’état, is considered contrary to the general interest. of war or Francoism, or direct or indirect incitement to hatred or violence against them due to their status as such”.
In these cases, according to the standard, It is up to the Protectorate of Foundations to judicially request the extinction of the foundation due to the concurrence of this cause. Culture has indicated that the procedure would be developed in three phases.
The first, the beginning of previous actions that now begin, consisting of the request for reports to the Secretariat of State for Democratic Memory and to the Registry of Foundations of state jurisdiction.
The second will be the opening of the procedure, which would begin with the communication of the file to the aforementioned foundation and the opening of the corresponding allegations period.
Finally, a report would be requested from the General State Attorney’s Office, from which the Ministry of Culture would prepare a resolution to judicially request the extinction. Finally, the resolution of the procedure will be the decision of the judges.