addressing outstanding issues , thereby remedying the unmet objectives of the 2007 Historical Memory Law , all while taking account of the recommendations of international organizations and the demands of the remembrance movement . Thus , the state ’ s responsibilities will include exhumations and resignification of the Valley of the Fallen , now that Franco has been removed from his mausoleum .
2 . Compared to the rest of Europe , Spain has a shortage of remembrance museums , interpretation centres and resignified sites that address the country ’ s traumatic past . Why do you think this is ? Do you envisage an active policy to create new spaces for the transmission of memory ?
Without a doubt . We plan to start remedying the situation this parliamentary term , but we are aware that it ’ s long overdue . We know about many initiatives undertaken by the autonomous communities , town councils and also , to a great extent , social and cultural associations to resignify and construct spaces . Under Zapatero , some memorials were financed through government subsidies , but few received direct funding . From now on , the central government will pursue a more proactive policy to create remembrance spaces on a different scale , including local initiatives that are entrenched in the territory and in specific events or experiences . In this regard , it is significant that the general chapter on the Duty of Memory within the draft bill contains , by way of a guarantee of non-recurrence , a specific section on democratic memory sites that will play a commemorative and educational role , and institutional mechanisms will be developed to integrate these into the international networks that respond to similar historical memory construction processes linked to conflicts and human rights violations , especially at European and Latin American level . In particular , the policy aims to safeguard and raise awareness of the extermination or forced labour camps in which thousands of exiles or dissidents were confined , in coordination with the countries where these are located .
3 . Some historians have cited research problems as a result of difficulties gaining access to certain documents ( due to the Official Secrets Act , the Data Protection Law or simply understaffed archives ). What relationship does the Secretariat have with National Heritage or the State Archives ? What role does the Historical Memory Documentary Centre in Salamanca play in this respect ?
Within the chapter dedicated to victims ’ right to the truth , the draft bill contains a section on archives and documentation , the true written memory of the state , which regulates access to public and private records and archives and specifically mentions the Historical Memory Documentary Centre in Salamanca , in light of the criteria of archival policies in defence of human rights drawn up by UNESCO and the International Council on Archives . In this respect , there are even plans to modify the Official Secrets Act within a year of the entry into force of the Democratic Memory Act . This would guarantee the right of access to the public information contained in all files belonging to the central government in relation to the Civil War and Franco ’ s dictatorship . At the same time , it is important to acknowledge that major progress has been made over the last two years through the ministerial resolutions of 20 September 2018 , 30 January 2019 and 22 July 2020 , which applied to the historical archives maintained by the Ministry of Defence and allowed the public to access many records relating to the Civil War and the dictatorship , including those marked private or confidential , provided that the corresponding documents date from before 26 April 1968 , when the Official Secrets Act came into force , and that there is no real threat to defence or national security .
4 . One of the articles published in this journal addresses the impact of social networks , specifically Twitter , on the exhumation of Francisco Franco . It was a historical event that had the country ’ s media on high alert . What were the main challenges faced by the Spanish
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Observing Memories ISSUE 4