The return of the past to parliamentary debate (1996-2003)

Abstract

The most recent changes that undergo the stories about our past of civil war, dictatorship and the transition to democracy, have been very much influenced by the changes in the relationship of power between the two main political parties throughout the country, that put an end to the long period of socialist government in the elections of March, 1996. Since the formation of the government of the Partido Popular, the debates over the past have been of the utmost importance in the political agenda and have filled thousands of pages in the report of proceedings in the Cortes Generales. This article tries to analyse the contents of the parliamentary debates and to explore the strategies and the interests set in motion that allow to understand the intensity of this singular phenomenon such as it took place in the Congreso of Diputados during the two legislatures with a majority —relative in the first one and absolute in the second— of the Partido Popular.