A Spanish minister, in this case that of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, has attended for the first time the acts in memory of the bombing of Gernika, 86 years ago, not to ask for forgiveness as the lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, has been demanding, but to vindicate the current Executive as successor to the legitimate republican government and to remember in its name the victims of “this atrocious bombing”. The minister took advantage of the occasion to announce that the Government of Spain will declare Gernika the “first place of memory”, in accordance with the Law of Democratic Memory.

Bolaños’s visit to the foral town had generated considerable expectation. It was the first time that a minister attended the events that annually commemorate that bombing of the civilian population and, in addition, there was interest in knowing his position in the face of the recurring appeals from the Basque Government, the PNV or the mayor of the town to the Spanish Executive to apologize for the bombing. The lehendakari himself had indicated in a video, published before the event, that he “celebrates and thanks” the attendance of a minister. “The State has yet to make a solemn gesture of moral and institutional reparation towards Gernika”, he has qualified.

Minister Bolaños has avoided this framework and has underlined his “pride” for visiting this town “representing the legitimate government that at that time was attacked by the indiscriminate bombardment of the Nazis, the fascists.” “We remember all those people, those hundreds of people who lost their lives. Spanish democracy is also the result of that struggle. As a member of the Government of Spain, 86 years after that massacre that Picasso immortalized, I want to tell you that we have not forgotten you. His memory is today what inspires our democracy ”, he has expressed.

The Minister of the Presidency has indicated that “that brutal bombardment that was suffered in Gernika, as it was suffered in other towns, did not achieve its objective.” “He did not manage to prevent Spain from being what it is: an advanced democracy, a European democracy, a democracy of values, of freedoms, of rights”, he stated.

In addition, he pointed out that “it was very symbolic” that the Gernika oak “before which the Lehendakaris swear, which is the symbol of freedom in the Basque Country” was left standing after the “absolutely atrocious bombardment by the fascists, the Nazis, of the coup plotters, against a legitimate government at that time”. “Legitimate government that I am representing in Gernika today, well, like that oak tree representing those freedoms of that democracy, it remained standing”, he pointed out.

Bolaños has also indicated that “that coup d’état that took place in 1936, that absolutely atrocious bombardment against the population of Gernika, those almost 40 years of dictatorship, could not achieve what came later, which is an absolutely advanced democracy as It’s the Spanish one.”

It is, as he pointed out, “an advanced democracy where we all fit, we all live together”. “Every day we are more proud to belong to a country like Spain, which today is at the forefront in so many things in the world,” she indicated.

The head of the Presidency explained that Gernika will be the first place in memory, since “it was the first place where there was an indiscriminate bombardment of the civilian population, where hundreds of innocent people died at the hands of the Nazis, the fascists of the coup plotters”. “In memory of all of them, the Government of Spain wants to tell them that their memory is still present, that our democracy today is also the result of their memory”, he pointed out.

In addition to the minister, the lehendakari himself has traveled to Gernika, as well as representatives of all the parties with representation in the Basque Parliament, except Vox. Survivors of the bombing or the son of George Steer, a correspondent who through The Times and The New York Times told the world the reality of what had happened, in the face of the rebellious side’s denialism, have also attended.