THE GHOST OF FRANCOISM RETURNS: DID THE PACT OF FORGETTING PAVE THE WAY FOR THE RISE OF FAR-RIGHT POLITICS IN SPAIN?

Spain endured one of Europe’s most grim 20th centuries, from a brutal Civil War (1936-1939) to nearly four decades of authoritarian rule under General Francisco Franco. Franco established a centralized regime that led to massive social, political, and economic changes across Spain. The Franco regime dismantled regional autonomy, suppressed political opposition, and enforced strict gender roles in the name of national unity. Following his death in 1975, Spain’s transition to democracy was marked by the introduction of the Pact of Forgetting, an informal political agreement that prioritized reconciliation and democracy over accountability for the crimes of the dictatorship. Rather than confronting its violent past and the crimes committed by the Franco regime through trials, Spain institutionalized silence and prioritized its transition to democracy in 1975. This decision has shaped how its recent political history was taught, remembered, and debated within Spanish society. While the Pact of Forgetting initially reduced the level of social conflict there was still a lot of conflict and violence in the early years of the transition, the pact presumably reduced it. However, it produced a problematic political amnesia in the later years of the transition and consolidation. In recent years, the conditions of the Pact of Forgetting have enabled the resurgence of authoritarian rhetoric, most visibly through the rise of the far-right discourses, movements, and parties. 

Forgetting, a Necessary Pact?

The resurgence of the far-right ideology is rooted in the original need for the Pact of Forgetting, which was later formalized into the 1977 Amnesty Law, giving immunity to both Francoist officials and anti-Francoist actors for the crimes both sides committed during Franco’s dictatorship. At this time, Spaniards were not aware of the regime’s violence due to the lengths Franco went to obscure his atrocities. Political leaders feared that exposing the truth would provoke civil unrest and the birth of another civil war. This fear inherently extended into the media and education system; school curriculum often omitted the Franco era, or distorted the truth, leaving students unclear on the history of the Civil War and, more importantly, the dictatorship.  Media outlets avoided critical engagement with Francoism and reinforced narratives of the success of the democratic transition, thus embedding political amnesia into Spain’s emergent democratic culture. 

This avoidance prompted intervention from international bodies, which sought to formally condemn Spain’s failure to address the crimes of the dictatorship. In 2002, the United Nations criticized the Spanish government for failing to address the disappearances and victims of the dictatorship. This prompted renewed debate about historical memory and paved the way for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to announce the 2007 Historical Memory Law. This law recognized the victims, removed Francoist symbols from public spaces, and promoted historical education. This marked the first attempt to dismantle the Pact of Forgetting and its consequences. However, despite these efforts, the legacy of authoritarianism remained deeply ingrained within Spanish society. The initial failure to condemn Francoist crimes left the understanding of the past open to political negotiation and reinterpretation. This allowed competing narratives to emerge, including understandings of the dictatorship that framed Francoism as a period of unity, stability, and the true Spanish order. This is where the repackaging of Francoist nationalism becomes crucial. By avoiding a clear moral reckoning with its authoritarian past, Spain created space for political amnesia. Stripping Francoism of its violence, while preserving its symbols and values intact, can be seen as the direct cause of recent and emerging far-right movements and parties. 

The Rise of Vox: “Defending Traditional Spanish Values” 

Founded in 2013 by Santiago Abascal and former members of the conservative Partido Popular (PP), Vox has been described by scholars as Spain’s “neo-Francoist grandchild.” Vox started gaining national prominence in the 2018 Andalusian elections because of recent immigration spikes in years prior and quickly rose to become the third-largest party in Spain’s Congress of Deputies. Vox’s rapid rise in elections reflects the political ideology among young voters and their drastic shift away from traditional parties, such as the PSOE (Socialist Party) and the PP (Conservative Party), which have historically dominated the democratic landscape during the transition. This is troubling as the party’s success among the youth today is symptomatic of how suppressing historical memory and education about the past can mask the revival of a presumed to be forgotten authoritarian subconscious. 

Vox’s platform emphasizes anti-immigration policies, opposition to feminism, rejection of multiculturalism, and the recentralization of the state. These positions closely mirror core elements of Francoist ideology. Party leaders frequently associate immigration with crime, rely on misleading statistics, and frame cultural diversity as a threat to Spanish identity. On April 21, 2023, Vox’s Jorge Buxadé claimed that “illegal immigration, by its own definition, is a crime,” following citations that migrants are responsible for the majority of the crimes committed in Catalonia. The manipulated data amplifies public discourse to reinforce Vox-centric policies against immigrants. Moreover, Vox wants to close mosques and deport imams to promote this agenda. Vox aligns immigration with the loss of traditional Spanish values, which can be directly linked to their strong unification efforts. Central to Vox’s policies is its strong opposition to the regional autonomy of 17 Spanish communities. As seen in its manifesto “100 medidas para la unidad nacional” (“100 Measures for National Unity”),Vox calls for the suspension of Catalan autonomy and the illegalization of organizations deemed to threaten territorial unity. Such proposals echo Franco’s suppression of regional identities, including the banning of Catalan and Basque languages from public life. By invoking a unified Spain as a democratic necessity, Vox reframes and revives authoritarian re-centralization as a solution to political fragmentation.

Beyond the idea of a recentralized state and immigration, Vox is the outlier among the contemporary Spanish political parties through its opposition to the cross-party consensus on gender violence. Vox is the only major Spanish party that refuses to sign agreements that condemn violence against women, deeming progressive gender policies to be “too radical”. The party's manifesto stands to repeal the 2004 Gender Violence Law, legislation that addresses violence against women. Vox promotes a distinct machista mindset where new legislative efforts treat all victims of violence equally, regardless of gender. However, this undermines decades of feminist progress and works towards the “elimination of all gender legislation”. Vox proposes replacing the law with a “Ministry for the Family,” a move aimed at promoting “gender equality”. These “traditional” changes reflect the party’s stance on gender-based violence. Vox’s ideological stance draws heavily on lingering Francoist values within a modern democratic context. Under Franco, gender roles were defined by the Catholic Church, while women were seen to be subordinated to male authority. Women were expected to be obedient wives and forced to be dependent on their husbands due to employment and property-owning restrictions. As women’s voices during this time were often marginalized in the political sphere, feminist movements began to emerge in an effort to reform women's roles in society. Vox’s reinforcement of Franco’s regime is closely linked to their opposition to the gender-based violence legislation.

This deliberate political branding and rejection of mainstream norms positions Vox as an outlier within contemporary Spanish politics. Abascal has frequently accused the PP of betraying the values of conservative parties, arguing that their stances align too closely with those of the PSOE. In 2023, Abascal described the PP as the “same as socialists, only ten years behind,” claiming that a cowardly political right does not exist anymore–just another center-left party. Abascal goes on to criticize the PP for collaborating with the PSOE in EU meetings that affect Spain, ultimately, portraying Vox as the sole defender of traditional Spanish values. This type of political branding is not unique to Spain, but rather reflects a broader European trend among far-right movements and parties. In Germany, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) challenges Erinnerungskultur (the culture of remembrance) by questioning the centrality of Holocaust memory in national identity. While Germany’s institutional reckoning with its past differs significantly from Spain’s, both cases demonstrate how memory politics can be weaponized to advance nationalist agendas. Spain’s distinctive vulnerability lies in its foundational decision to forget.

Political Amnesia and Historical Revisionism

Contextualizing the parallels between Vox´s discourse and policies and those of the Franco regime showcases how the party attempts to mobilize the effects of political amnesia induced by the Pact of Forgetting and rewrite the past through an engineered historical revisionism that manipulates the nation's memory. Vox uses these tools to frame its ideology, where central to its positionings is the party´s opposition to the new historical memory initiatives. The party has repeatedly called for the repeal of the 2007 Historical Memory Law and the 2020 Democratic Memory Law, arguing that no parliament should “define the past.” Vox frames memory policies as divisive and portrays itself as the defender of national cohesion. This position exemplifies historical revisionism: the selective reinterpretation of the past to legitimize present political goals. By opposing efforts to recognize victims and remove Francoist symbols, Vox preserved monuments such as the Valle de Cuelgamuros (Valley of the Fallen), presenting them as symbols of unity rather than as sites of political repression. This narrative appeals to voters who associate Francoism with order and stability, particularly younger generations who lack comprehensive historical education.      

By refusing to confront the past, Vox contributes to the political amnesia that fuels tensions between the right and the left in Spain today. This reveals how unresolved historical and political legacies continue to plague Spanish society. Vox’s oppositions to the Historical Memory Law and the Democratic Memory Law feed this vicious cycle. By prioritizing silence over accountability, Spain’s democratic transition left historical wounds unaddressed and collective memory fragmented and undeconstructed. ? Vox has strategically exploited this vacuum, repackaging Francoist ideals into a contemporary political project that challenges feminist advances, regional autonomy, and pluralism. This analysis demonstrates that the mismanagement of historical memory through distortion and silence undermines democratic rhetoric and causes democratic backsliding. Younger generations who have been educated within the constraints of the Pact of Forgetting are those particularly susceptible to narratives that have been respun into authoritarian nostalgia. Historical memory itself is not the cause of political radicalization; Spain’s failure to confront its authoritarian past has produced this fragmented and contested landscape. Breaking the silence around Francoism through education, legislation, and the recognition of victims is not an act of division but a prerequisite for democratic maturity. Without such a reckoning, the mistakes Spain once agreed to forget risk being repeated.

Thea Uhl, a BA candidate in Communications, Political Science & International Studies at Saint Louis University - Madrid, is currently the Editor-in-Chief of The NewSLU at Saint Louis University-Madrid, leading student and staff teams to deliver transparent and accountable journalism. Uhl is multilingual professional proficient in Bulgarian, English, and Spanish, equipped with advanced cross-cultural communication skills gained from living in three different countries.

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Uhl, T. (2026, February). The ghost of francoism returns: Did the pact of forgetting pave the way for the rise of far-right politics in Spain?. Observatory On Contemporary Crises. https://www.crisesobservatory.org/post/the-ghost-of-francoism-returns-did-the-pact-of-forgetting-pave-the-way-for-the-rise-of-far-right-po