From the editor’s desk

Time to heal

Members of the Islamic extremist gang that blew up trains in Madrid three years ago, killing 190 people, have been convicted and sentenced, and it has acted as a moment of healing for Spanish society, long used to living with bitter memories. Another possible moment of healing is at hand, different but strangely related - the revisiting of the murderous Spanish Civil War of the 1930s in order to lay to rest the era's many ghosts. The war cost some 500,000 lives, many of whom were massacred rather than killed in battle. On one hand the Spanish Church has just celebrated the mass beatification of hundreds of church members, mainly nuns and priests, who were killed simply because of their religion. On the other, Parliament is about to enact a "law of historical memory" designed to address grievances mainly on the Left. This was largely prompted by Republican groups who began to open some of the post-Civil War mass graves in Spain and exhume the bodies of the victims.

Spain's smooth transformation from a fascist dictatorship to a parliamentary democracy some 30 years ago seemed almost miraculous at the time. The key to its success was the agreement of both Left and Right, ideological descendants of the two sides who fought the Civil War, to what was called el pacto de olvido, "the pact of forgetting". The victors laid aside their triumph, and the defeated their grief. They transferred any future conflict to Parliament to be fought with words and ideas. What they were not to do was to look back.

This period of Spanish history is coming to an end, in the hope that Spanish society is mature enough now to revisit memories of that bloody conflict, deal with what can be dealt with, and move on. This is a delicate moment in Spain, therefore, and the centre-right opposition has warned of the possible consequences. The Socialist Government, which won a dramatic election victory as a direct consequence of the Madrid bombings, has tried to reach out to the other side. It was officially represented at the papal beatification ceremonies. There is much justice in its argument that both sides had its martyrs, and the Left's have yet to be honoured. Thousands were shot in cold blood as the Civil War ended. They deserve a decent burial, compensation for their families where possible, and the annulment of military tribunal findings of guilt. Although the Civil War generation has by now almost completely passed away, these things still matter. Honour is highly prized in Spain. Whether the Socialists or indeed the Spanish bishops are playing with fire by these symbolic acts remains to be seen: they are certainly putting the post-Franco settlement to a severe test. Many societies, from South Africa to Northern Ireland, have struggled with the problems of uniting a bitterly divided society where many historic injustices can never be rectified, and the Spanish "pact of forgetting" was one of the most remarkable solutions. But a new generation, second- or third-removed from the combatants, is seeking a new way to heal its collective memories. Having forgotten and then remembered, now that generation must enter a "pact of forgiving". It may yet prove the hardest part.