Catalonia Today, July 20, 2006 | Seventy years later

The 18th of July was the 70th anniversary of the 1936 military uprising against the second Spanish Republic, which led to a civil war and a dictatorship that lasted until 1975, when General Franco died. The socialist Prime Minister Rodriguez Zapatero is having to push through the "historical memory law" without the support of his parliamentary partners –ex Communists, Catalan independents and Basque and Catalan Nationalists– because the PSOE government has given in to pressure from the main Spanish opposition party, the PP, and has watered down the bill. Zapatero had proposed to publicly rehabilitate those who have suffered from the reprisals of franquisme and the victims of both sides. PP's obstinacy made it impossible to heal of the deep wounds of the two Spains, and Zapatero –who is so brave in some things–  did not dare to stand up to the opposition. The party founded by the franquista ex-minister Manuel Fraga is not suffering from a lack of memory, quite the opposite, in fact. They are well aware that their roots derive from franquisme. It is incredible that Spanish democracy is still incapable of condemning the terrible act, 70 years later.

(Article de Saül Gordillo al setmanari Catalonia Today, 20 de juliol de 2006, pàgina 3.)