Artist Mar Grimalt and international law expert Margalida Capellà discuss democratic memory and freedoms

PalmThe ARA Baleares (Balearic Islands Association of Aragon) is organizing a round table discussion this Wednesday, January 28th, to reflect on democratic memory, discrimination, and the system of freedoms, in a context marked by the repeal of the Democratic Memory Law in the Balearic Islands and the resurgence of the far right. The event will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the Lul·lià General Study Hall in Palma. Admission is free, but prior registration is required.

The meeting stems from the idea that democratic memory goes beyond the essential reparations for the victims of Francoism, but also establishes memory as a right of younger generations, born in democracy and who have often received insufficient education about the dictatorship. At a time when discourses that trivialize or deny the fascist past are circulating again, the debate aims to focus on the need to understand it in order to prevent its repetition.

The round table will bring together Margalida Capellà, one of the driving forces behind the Law of Democratic Memory and an expert in Human Rights; Mar Grimalt, a young, committed, and socially conscious artist; and Cristina Ros, director of the weekly newspaper ARA Balears, who will moderate the conversation. The dialogue will be structured around several thematic blocks that connect the past, present, and future. The debate will begin by analyzing the significance of the Democratic Memory Law in the Balearic Islands, both for victims and their families and for society as a whole, and what its repeal implies in democratic and symbolic terms. From there, the discussion will turn to current political and media affairs, exploring whether there is a genuine standstill in memory policies and a disappearance of the narrative in the media and public sphere. Another central theme will be the construction of the system of freedoms after the dictatorship and its progressive erosion in a globalized world with increasingly concentrated economic and political power. The resurgence of the far right in the Balearic Islands, in Spain, and in Europe will also be analyzed, along with its connection to the denial or trivialization of the fascist past.

The focus on young people will occupy a prominent part of the conversation: what they really know about the Franco regime, what they have learned in school, what ideas circulate among them, and where the discourse that claims "life was better under Franco" originates—a discourse often repeated by people who did not live through the dictatorship. In this regard, the discussion will also address reactionary discourses that associate the idealization of Francoism with sexist, racist, and anti-immigrant ideas, as well as the narrative that asserts "there are too many rights now."

Finally, the round table will address the role of social media and disinformation, especially on platforms like TikTok, and how democratic memory can compete with simplistic and often false formats. The debate will conclude with a reflection on memory, culture, and the future, and on the role that art, education, and journalism can play as spaces of resistance and transmission of memory.