Digging up Franco in the Economist

The Economist is to be congratulated again on its balanced coverage of Spain. Its article on the exhumation of Franco concludes thus:

The Socialists want to turn the Valley into “a museum of memory”. There is a risk in that of history once again being written by one side. Perhaps the best thing would be to deconsecrate the site and create a museum that explains what happened at the Valley itself. … Modern Spain is not in thrall to Franco’s ghost. Most Spaniards have no memory of the dictator. Only an ageing minority still regularly attend mass. But the lack of unanimity over the exhumation shows that the country has yet to agree on the past. Perhaps it never will.

The crucial, and most unusual, point that is made here is the clear recognition that Spain is still far from achieving closure and a simple view of the events of the 1930s, from the creation of the Second Republic in 1931 to Franco’s victory in 1939. The Left often gives the impression that it seeks revenge, that it wants to refight the war and win it this time, rather than desiring unity. It will indeed take time to agree on the past, much more than is pretended by those who seek an immediate rewriting of the “historical memory”. The start of a search for consensus and common agreement would be welcome.