Spain: coup files declassified
On Monday, the 45th anniversary of the attempted coup of 23 February 1981, the Spanish government announced that it was declassifying the corresponding documents, which since are available for viewing on the government website. The failure of the military coup was a key moment in Spain's transition to democracy, known as the "Transición", after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
Time to reveal dark secrets
El País demands more:
“This decision sets a precedent that should not remain an exception. ... Historians, political parties and journalists have been demanding access to the confidential documents relating to 23 February for years. They also want to put an end to the anomaly of a law on state secrets that dates back to the dictatorship still being in force. ... The government can now also shed light on other opaque aspects of the final years of the Franco regime and the transition to democracy, such as the dirty war against ETA. ... The secrecy surrounding most of these episodes no longer makes sense. A robust democracy is also measured by its ability to analyse and understand its past, including its darkest chapters.”
Questionable transparency
El Mundo is certain that the publication of irrelevant historical documents is an attempt to distract attention from current problems:
“The declassification doesn't provide any significant new insights and confirms the decisive role played by King Juan Carlos I in stopping the revolt. ... In view of the limited relevance of the material published by the government it's only logical to conclude that this is a diversionary tactic. ... In the interests of democracy, it would be good if the government were to offer the same sudden transparency it is boasting about with regard to the past to the present.”
New maturity in dealing with the past
It's time to stop hailing the transition from dictatorship to democracy as a heroic metaphor and look at the facts, El Periódico de Catalunya argues:
“It took the arrival of new generations for the narrative of Spanish society as a collective hero and its great adventure, the Transición, to be viewed in a more nuanced way, then discussed, and finally questioned. ... It is in this context, now that the mentors of the idea of the collective hero are either physically or politically dead, that Pedro Sánchez has decided to declassify the documents. This strengthens democratic legitimacy and should increase trust in institutions and combat rumours and conspiracy theories.”