EUROPE INSIGHT
Interview with Fernando Martínez López Historian , Spain ’ s State Secretary for Democratic Memory
Commemorative processes in Spain should become
an inescapable part of a common European memory
Fernando Martínez López is a professor of Modern History in the University of Almería . He dedicated an important part of his research to study the political trials during Francoism and coordinated the mass graves map project in Andalusia . He became general Director for Democratic Memory of the Spanish government in 2019 and Secretary of State in 2020 . Last year he dealt with the exhumation of the dictator Francisco Franco from the Valle de los Caídos . He is in charge of developing memory policies in Spain and faces new challenges , such as the debate about a new democratic memory law . We talked to him about the present and the future of memory policies in Spain and Europe .
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Observing Memories ISSUE 4