Pedro Sánchez uses the trip of the Kings to Auschwitz to bleach the acts for Franco’s death

The visit of Felipe VI and Doña Letizia to Auschwitz on Monday is an opportunity to remember the horrors of the past and reaffirm Spain’s commitment to peace and human rights. But for this message to be authentic, it must be free of political manipulations that distort its meaning.

Pedro Sánchez, Consumed strategist of the propaganda arts, has decided to use the visit of the kings of Spain to Auschwitz, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of its release, as a sibyling resource to dilute any hint of controversy around the commemorative acts of the 50th anniversary of the Death of Franco. It is not accidental that the Government has appointed Felipe VI and Doña Letizia as the Minister of Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, instead of the head of Foreign The story of Spanish historical memory, perhaps looking for a parallelism as artificial and irreverent.

The visit of the kings to Auschwitz had to have been limited, as corresponds to an act of such historical magnitude, to the sober and universal reflection on the horror of the Holocaust. There, more than a million people were killed, victims of an atrocious hatred that dehumanized millions in the heart of Europe. Auschwitz, with its gas chambers, its crematorium ovens and its brutal extermination machinery, represents the culmination of Nazi totalitarianism, a regime that raised hatred to an organizational, industrial, methodical category.

However, the Pedro Sánchez Executive has decided to tarnish this ceremony of collective pain with a political background. By sending the Minister of Democratic Memory instead of the exterior, Sánchez exhibits his purpose: relating Auschwitz to Franco. This maneuver is not only absurd in historical terms, but also deeply disrespectful. Auschwitz’s tragedy belongs to the universal collection of human pain, and any attempt to fold it to particular political interests is a lack of inadmissible decorum.

The intention of the government is clear: to take advantage of Auschwitz’s solemnity to reinforce the official story of democratic memory. This story, built from a Ramplón Manichaeism, draws a line that identifies Franco with the Nazi hatred machinery, ignoring that the recent history of Spain is much more complex and nuanced. By equating the Francoist dictatorship with Auschwitz, the government not only falsifies the story, but offends the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, whose tragedy is inscribed in a radically different context.

It is still paradoxical that Sanchez seeks to raise Franco to the same level of ignominy as Nazism, when his own party and other political actors have claimed the role of the Soviet regime – whose totalitarianism also left a bloody footprint in the twentieth century – in the Auschwitz release. The complexity of history dissolves, thus, in a political discourse destined to polarize Spanish society and instrumentalize memory for partisan purposes.

The act in Auschwitz, which will be attended by heads of state and representatives of fifty countries, should have been a reminder of the need to safeguard peace, respect human dignity and prevent the horrors of totalitarianism. However, the inclusion of the Minister of Democratic Memory, whose department is more oriented to national political disputes than to international diplomacy, introduces a discordant note in a ceremony that demands respect and solemnity.

Framing the visit of the Kings to Auschwitz within the acts of the 50th anniversary of Franco’s death is an act of political opportunism

Auschwitz’s symbolism – that factory of death where human brutality reached its apotheosis – does not need to be used as a tool to legitimize a political program. The presence of the kings of Spain should be limited to honoring the memory of the victims, without the interference of political agendas that distort the true meaning of the act.

The decision to frame the visit of the Kings to Auschwitz within the acts of the 50th anniversary of Franco’s death is an act of political opportunism. Sanchez knows that Francoism remains a divisive theme in Spain, and has found in this ephemeris an opportunity to strengthen his speech on democratic memory. But linking Auschwitz with Franco is not only a historical nonsense, but also a maneuver that seeks to enliven old injuries to harvest political revenues in a context of growing social polarization.

Franco was a dictatorship that repressed fundamental freedoms and rights, But it is crazy to establish a direct parallelism with the Holocaust. The latter was an act of planned extermination against entire peoples, with a genocidal dimension that transcends any simplistic comparison. When trying to link both realities, the Government not only disfigures historical facts, but also trivializes the magnitude of the Holocaust.

The political use of historical memory always involves risks, but when mixed with tragedies of universal scope such as holocaust, the consequences can be especially pernicious. Pedro Sánchez has turned historical memory into a propaganda instrument, blurring the boundaries between respect for victims and political calculation.

This strategy not only instrumentalizes the past, but also mine the credibility of Spain in the international stage. The Auschwitz ceremony should have been a space for recollection and reflection, not for ideological proselytism. The presence of the Minister of Democratic Memory sends a wrong message, which can be interpreted as a lack of sensitivity towards the universal nature of this commemorative act.

Auschwitz’s tragedy reminds us that hate and fanaticism can lead to the darkest abysses of the human condition. This reminder should not be instrumentalized to prop up particular political schedules, but should serve as a call to unity, empathy and mutual respect.

By including the visit of the Kings to Auschwitz in the framework of the 50th anniversary acts of Franco’s death, the Government of Pedro Sánchez incurs an instrumentalization of pain that is ethically questionable. Instead of promoting a sincere reflection on the lessons of the past, the Executive has chosen to use this event as a speaker for its political discourse, diluting the solemnity and respect that the victims of the Holocaust deserve.