Chapter 6 - Questioning the Transition: Late Transitional Justice?

Summary

A NEW SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT

Some observers have suggested that the Spanish transition was rather unique, which would somewhat confirm the old adage that “Spain is different”. Political actors have been, to a greater or lesser degree, proud of a model of making pacts without transitional justice. Most of these attempts have then been examined within a narrative of heroic consensus. However, the sacralised culture of the “consenso” did not allow the development of a “culture of transitional justice” that is based on a set of beliefs and practices grounded in the rejection of impunity, challenging the past, prioritising the accountability of the State and seeking the broader social inclusion of the victims of the previous regime. But, if Spain was viewed as a model of “pacific” transition, it is now a pioneer again, but this time for “showing the way for “pacted democracies” to pursue justice after, and apart from, the moment of transition; in other words, it provides an example of the movement from transitional culture towards “post-transitional justice” politics”. However, since it is a process that took thirty years to get started, which implies a delayed response, it can be better described as a case of late transitional justice. The discovery of a “late transitional justice” leads us to question whether we find ourselves before a devalued form of transitional justice, a sort of “last resort”, or if we can conclude that transitional justice is a powerful social and political force capable of emerging in different temporal and spatial contexts.

At the beginning of the 21^st century, there remained a “pending debt” with the Spanish population. According to De la Cuesta, the three main factors which formed the basis of this argument were that: (a) many families still did not know the details of what happened to their missing and dead and felt the need to exhume their remains for reburial in their own cemeteries and family graves; (b) in some parts of Spain, Francoist symbols and memorials remained on display; and (c) there was an increasing demand for a revision of sentences and the overturning of legal judgments, including death sentences, passed against the political opponents of Franco.