Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced that his government will grant Spanish citizenship to almost 170 descendants of the International Brigades, foreigners who fought for the Republicans side during the Spanish Civil War.
Sánchez recently made this promise during a ceremony in Madrid to commemorate the Day of Remembrance and Tribute to all the victims of the 1936 military coup, the Spanish Civil War, and the ensuing Franco dictatorship.
The descendants are to receive their new Spanish citizenship on Tuesday November 4th.
This is part of the Democratic Memory Law which grants Spanish citizenship to relatives of the International Brigades, who were groups of foreign volunteers who fought on the Republican side against the Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War.
“For the free and democratic Spain that we are, it will be an honour to call them compatriots,” and “by recognising this right, we are appealing to the very defence of democracy in a time of threat and regression throughout the world,” Sánchez stated.
During the ceremony, the Spanish Prime Minister reiterated that the Spanish Cabinet will approve the Royal Decree cataloguing symbols and monuments of Franco’s dictatorship still found across the country, “so that they are removed once and for all from our streets, our squares, our towns, and our cities.
“Without excuses and without delay. It is a matter of common sense, because no democracy, least of all ours, honours coup plotters,” Sánchez said.
READ ALSO: Remembering the Battle of Jarama and the role of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War
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The Spanish PM also took the opportunity to warn about the rise in popularity of the far right. “A few days ago, we learned that more than a fifth of Spaniards think that Franco’s dictatorship was good or very good,” he noted.
“This terrible statistic is also the result of historical revisionism, which seeks to muddy our history to cloud our present, particularly for younger generations, and which jeopardises our future. Something like this doesn’t happen by accident or chance. There is a slow but constant effort to delegitimise democracy.”
READ ALSO: Good or bad? Franco splits three generations of Spanish women
It begins by calling (historical) revisionism a consensus and ends by ignoring the fact that torture was carried out until the very end in some public buildings,” Sánchez explained. The Spanish premier was referring to the right-wing president of the Community of Madrid Isabel Díaz Ayuso and her refusal to place a plaque at the regional government headquarters signalling its previous use as a torture centre.
The PP-Vox coalition governments of Castilla and León, Valencia and Aragón have also proposed legislation calling for Franco’s rule to not be referred to a “dictatorship”, for Francoist symbols to be preserved and for mass graves of Civil War victims to remain untouched.
During the event, the Spanish government also honoured 18 victims of the Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship, including the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca.
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International Brigade fighters themselves have been able to apply for Spanish citizenship since 1996, though they were required to drop their other nationality. Spain’s 2007 Historical Memory Law removed that requirement, though the offer of citizenship was not extended to the International Brigade’s descendants.
Then in 2022, Spain’s Democratic Memory Law passed, extending the citizenship offer to descendants who can obtain Spanish citizenship without having to give up their original nationality. Now finally after applying for it, almost 170 descendants will finally be granted Spanish citizenship.
Between 1936 and 1939, at least 35,000 international volunteers from around 50 countries – including around 2,500 Brits – fought against Francisco Franco’s fascist troops in the International Brigade during the Civil War.
An estimated 10,000 foreign volunteers died in Spain, according to the Spanish Civil War Museum.
READ ALSO: Application window for Spanish citizenship via Grandchildren’s Law closes
