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That day, 80 years ago, the Spanish Civil War ended with the victory of the Francoist alliance of nationalists, monarchists and Catholics. The opinion pages of the French centrist daily newspaper The world carry an article entitled "Spain and France still need an apology to the victims of Franco".
It's a complicated story.
The basic fact is that after the nationalist victory, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children, veterans and civilians, were forced to leave Spain while the forces of Franco unfolded what the article calls the "black veil" of fascism on the Iberian people. Peninsula.
Last month, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez apologized to all those who participated in the so-called retirement or retirement – the forced exile of the vanquished and their families.
This official recognition lasted eighty years.
Sanchez made his symbolic gesture at a crucial moment, says the The world article. And his eloquent appeal was for a recognition of the republican spirit in the Spanish democracy.
In recent years, many right-wing elements in Spain have joined forces to end the excesses of Franco's dictatorship.
That no one forgets, says the French daily, that the collective madness of this fratricidal war was triggered by a military coup against the government of the legitimately elected, but left-wing Popular Front.
Long dead but extremely influential
Pedro Sanchez spoke only after visiting the French tombs of two of the most famous exiles: Manuel Azaña and Antonio Machado.
Poets, writers and fervent antifascists, they are at the top of a long list that gives an idea of the enormous intellectual loss suffered by Spain at the time of retirement.
The fight against fascism forced the unification of all leftist forces. Sanchez took care to rebadign each of them in his place, without erasing his differences.
The world stresses that the so-called democratic transition between 1976 and 1982 was truly an opportunity for the victors of the civil war to maintain their pressure on the losers.
The amnesty proclaimed in 1977 put the two sides on an equal footing, which means that the crimes of the dictatorship were officially acquitted by an appalling silence. It also means that there is no chance of justice being done for the children and grandchildren of those who fought on the losing side.
The world affirms that Spain can never be a true democracy as long as the roads and paths of the country are lined with anonymous graves of unidentified corpses, or that plaques and statues commemorate the glory of the Franco regime.
Perhaps even worse for the ultimate social cohesion is the fact that no cases condemning fighters of anti-Franco resistance have been officially declared void by the Spanish courts.
A French veil of ignorance
But how many French people know how Spanish refugees were treated after crossing the Pyrenees? How many realize the appalling conditions in which they were detained in internment camps in the south of France?
In 1936, the government of Paris chose to turn a blind eye to the Spanish tragedy. After the defeat of 1939, refugees were treated either as animals or encouraged to return home, join the Foreign Legion or work in foreign labor camps. At the end of the World War, they were forgotten or considered "undesirable".
The world had to wait until 2014 before being able to publicly hear a French president, recognizing the importance of the role played by Spanish exiles in the liberation that ended the Second World War.
Recognizing the truth of history means accepting responsibility, declares The world. And the fact is that in this case at least Spanish refugees, France has shown a lack of courage.
Now, 80 years after the tragic events, it would be a good time to begin the process of truth and reconciliation.
There is a mailbox on the tomb of Antonio Machado, in the French town of Collioure.
Letters are sometimes posted there by the descendants of exiled Spanish Republicans. As their fathers and grandfathers have done in the past eight decades. It's time, says The world, so that the French government writes its own letter of apology. Antonio Machado is still waiting.
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