It is not historical memory, it is socialist hatred in 2019 towards those who thwarted the plans of the PSOE in 1934 and 1936. The objective of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party at that time was to liquidate the Second Republic, end democracy, and replace it with a Marxist-Leninist dictatorship like the one that already prevailed in Stalin's USSR. This may or may not please current Spanish socialists and progressives in general, but that is how it was and that is how it must be remembered. The PSOE tried it with the coup d'état of October 1934, but both the president of the Second Republic and the president of the Government, the Republicans Niceto Alcalá Zamora and Alejandro Lerroux (the latter also Minister of War), entrusted the General of Division Francisco Franco with crushing the socialist coup d'état. The General of Division, the highest level in the military hierarchy of that time since the rank of Lieutenant General was suppressed in the Second Republic, was efficient and aborted the bastard attempt of the PSOE; the Second Republic was able to continue because Franco prevented the left from destroying it. The socialists tried again in 1936 with a less specific strategy, starting by fraudulently acceding to power in February, manipulating the election results. Francisco Largo Caballero, leader of the PSOE, said in the general election campaign: "The working class must seize political power convinced that democracy is incompatible with socialism, and since whoever has power will not hand it over voluntarily, that is why we must go to the revolution." This distinguished leader of the PSOE was behind the brutal destabilization pursued by the hundreds of murders committed by the Popular Front in the spring of 1936.
The end of democracy that Largo Caballero and the Popular Front devised was supported by Stalin and, had it not been for the military uprising of July 18, the dictatorship of the proletariat would have taken very little time to be implemented in Spain. Really, the Civil War had its prologue with the left's electoral fraud in the general elections of February 1936 and the fraudulent occupation of power by the Popular Front, all led by the PSOE. Democracy was already destroyed by the left long before July 18, therefore, the Civil War was a struggle between two possibilities of dictatorship. And between those two possibilities, undoubtedly the one led by that General who had already saved democracy in 1934 was much better, because that military man implemented true socialist policies that developed the rights of workers, exactly the opposite of what happened in Stalin's USSR.
The PSOE of Francisco Largo Caballero was in debt to Stalin and it was foreseen that it would be much more so because of the already ongoing war confrontation. The firm Soviet support, to those who would be under the mandate of the Politburo of Moscow if they won the Spanish contest, was faced with the gold of the Bank of Spain, the patrimony of all Spaniards. And that decision was taken by Largo Caballero putting Juan Negrín as a puppet. The embezzlement of the fourth largest gold reserve in the world, the Spanish one, began in the early morning of September 14, 1936, with Largo Caballero as President of the Government and Minister of War, Juan Negrín as Minister of Finance and Indalecio Prieto as Minister of the Navy, what a trio of scoundrels! The PSOE and the Government of Spain are jointly responsible for this historic disaster. Moreover, the journey from Madrid to Cartagena was guarded by the Motorized Brigade of the PSOE. From there to the port of Odessa, arriving in Moscow on November 5. It is necessary to mention the boxes that were disappearing along the way, which only with respect to the difference between those counted by the head of the Treasury, Francisco Méndez Aspe, and Negrín's confidant, and those counted by the director of the NKVD, Alexander Orlov, was 100 boxes, each weighing 75 kg, of gold. After the civil war, in the Banque Commerciale de l'Europe du Nord there were a total of 1,896 million francs in the name of colleagues, relatives and agents of Juan Negrín. The high socialist leaders of 1936 are the greatest commission agents in the History of Spain, great masters of what we see today.
More than eighty years later, the PSOE comes with its damn Law of Historical Memory to version what suits it, to make up its murders and indignities and to hide its robberies. Francisco Franco burst the bastard Marxist and anti-democratic dreams of Pablo Iglesias Posse and crushed the imminent autarkic plans of Stalin, Francisco Largo Caballero, Juan Negrín and all that totalitarian rabble. He did it twice, in 1934 and 1936. In addition, his management, although dictatorial, was clearly socialist, making socialists uncomfortable because of it, and that is why they want to exhume him, harass his figure and send it into oblivion. The vast majority of Spanish democrats in 2019 do not care exactly where Franco's remains are, although we prefer not to be exhuming remains for ideological reasons. What we do demand is that the socialists do not spend our money on covering up their shame, on smoke screens or on doing what they would see as a barbarity if it were done with Mao, Lenin, Stalin, Castro or Chávez. We would also like to continue enjoying the Valley of the Fallen and all its surroundings, just as we enjoy the fabulous artistic jewels that make up our entire National Heritage. Likewise, frankly, we would greatly appreciate it if the PSOE, and Pedro Sánchez at the head, tried to recover all or part of the tens of thousands of millions that were stolen from us in 1936.