Until last October the Government, through the extraordinary commissioner, had organized around 150 scheduled events Spain at liberty on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Franco’s death. The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, announced on Wednesday that between November and December there will be another 480 distributed throughout the autonomous communities. “We want to indoctrinate in democracy because the dangerous thing is to indoctrinate in totalitarianism. We want to invite a calm and contrasted reflection on what it means to live in democracy and on the 40 years of loss of rights under the dictatorship, especially for the younger ones who did not know the absence of freedom”. Just this Thursday, half a century has passed since Franco’s death, there will be no major official event. “We are not celebrating the death of the dictator, but the beginning of the end, the progressive recovery of freedoms,” Torres explained.
Being able to express your opinion freely, being able to marry whoever you want, being able to decide about your body, being able to question this campaign, being able to be on the right, on the left, in the center, being able to be of nothing.
50 years ago this country began the journey towards freedom that brought us… pic.twitter.com/vbhsNPJ4AH
— Spain in Freedom (@50enLibertad) November 19, 2025
The minister presented a communication campaign (commercials, radio spots, press ads, banners on buildings…), entitled Democracy is your powerwhich recalls, in fact, the rights acquired after Franco’s death. Among others, the campaign includes the following examples: “Being able to marry for life. Being able to divorce as many times as you want”; “Being able to come by boat and have your son play for the Spanish team”; “Being able to be a judge like your father. Being able to be a judge, even if your father isn’t”; “Be able to run a campaign that promotes democracy. Be able to criticize it.” The messages have been prepared in all co-official languages.
The commissioner of the program, Carmina Gustrán, explained that the activities are focused above all on young people and to remember and recognize “the essential role of the common citizen and social movements in the recovery of democracy, which did not fall from the sky nor was it a gift from anyone”. Among the planned activities there is a strategy video game on threats to democracy and to escape room traveling with questions about dictatorship. The events, according to Gustrán, will continue next year thanks to a collaboration agreement with the Youth Council.
