Pedro Sánchez announces more than a hundred events in 2025 to commemorate 50 years of freedom in Spain

National Music Auditorium, Madrid

Group photo of the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, and the honorees and their representatives (Pool Moncloa/Fernando Calvo)

Under the name 'Spain in liberty', this commemoration will take place with a "single objective," which is "to highlight the great transformation achieved in this half century of democracy, and to pay tribute to all the people and groups that have made it possible," explained the president. A time in which our country went from "being a poor, isolated dictatorship to one of the world's fullest democracies. A modern, open and sustainable economy, a tolerant and inclusive society, and an international power, committed to multilateralism, Europeanism and peace."

The commemoration will take the form of "more than a hundred cultural activities and events of various kinds that will flood our streets, schools, universities and museums, starting on 8 January." In order to organise its development, the government will create a special commission, appoint a scientific committee made up of recognised experts, and collaborate with all the public administrations to carry out an extensive programme of activities, the details of which will be announced at the start of the year at the ceremony to mark the start of the celebration.

During his speech at the ceremony for the 'Day of Remembrance and Tribute to all the victims of the military coup, the War and the Dictatorship' in which he made this announcement, the president recalled that "almost half a century separates us from the death of the dictator, but the consequences of that wound are still tangible and demand truth, reparation and justice." "If we are here today, it is because freedom and democracy have triumphed in the end," said Pedro Sánchez, "but that victory," he warned, "is never definitive. Today, speeches vindicating the dictatorship desecrate even the temple of democracy that is the Lower House of Parliament. The danger of involution, therefore, is real, and it grows where the meaning of one of the most beautiful words in our language, the word concord, is perverted." Because, he continued, "there is no concord when victims are equated with executioners, nor when historical lies are perpetuated, and there is no concord when laws are agreed with the enemies of freedom and equality."

Family photo of honorees and their representatives | Pool Moncloa /Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

On this point, he referred to the "clear warning of the United Nations rapporteur on the laws of false concord promoted by some regional governments," in the sense that "there is no concord possible when there is deliberate forgetting and falsification of history," and stressed that the government "will ensure that no law of false concord distorts the duty of Truth, Justice, Reparation and guarantees of non-repetition that the Law on Democratic Memory extols."

During the event - in which the Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory also took part - homage was paid to writers such as Miguel Hernández, Vicente Aleixandre and María Zambrano, politicians such as Blas Infante, Alexandre Bóveda and Julián Zugazagoitia, jurists such as Francisco Javier Elola, teachers and professors such as Joaquín Amigo and Justa Freire, artists such as Miguel de Molina and soldiers such as Xosé Fortes.

The following Government representatives were also present: the First Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Treasury; the Second Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Work and Social Economy; the Minister for Home Affairs; the Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda; the Minister for Culture; the Minister for Economy, Trade and Enterprise; the Minister for Health; the Minister for Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda; the Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities; and the Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.

Non official translation