Day of remembrance and reparation in Gernika

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be in Gernika this Friday to pay tribute to the victims of the bombing in 1937 by the German Nazi Condor Legion and the Italian Legionary Aviation, allies of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.

Steinmeier eta Elke Büdenbender, First Lady of Germany, will arrive in Foronda in the morning and will be received by President Imanol Pradales at the Palace of Ajuria Enea, from where they will travel to Gernika, where they will meet King Philip VIof Spain.

In Gernika, the events with representatives of Germany, Spain and the Basque Country will begin from 11:45 a.m. with a tribute to the victims of the bombing at the Zallo cemetery. The floral offering and minute of silence will be at the heart of this solemn act.

From there, the authorities are expected to visit the Gernika PeaceMuseum, which is the repository of numerous contents and documentation on the memory of the bombing, the Civil War and the post-war period.

In addition, the German head of state will also meet two 95-year-old women who survived the bombing, Crucita Etxabe and Mari Carmen Agirre, and in the afternoon he will visit the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

Together with the Lehendakari and the institutional positions of the Basque Government, the Government Delegate in the Basque Country, Marisol Garmendia, and the EU Secretary of State, Fernando Mariano Sampedro, will participate as representatives of the Spanish Government.

Representatives of the main Basque parties will also be present, including thePresident of the PNV, Aitor Esteban, and the leaders of the PSE-EE, the Popular Partyand Sumar- Neko Andueza, Javier de Andrés and Alba García, respectively.

EH Bilduhas announced that, although he "celebrates the gesture" of the German President as a "step in the right direction," he will not come to the meeting because, in his opinion, "the presence of Philip of Bourbon is particularly painful." The Party has stated in a statement that "those who bombed Gernika helped build the Franco regime, which in turn restored the Bourbon monarchy that succeeds King Philip VI."

A visit of historical importance

This is not the first time that Germany has acknowledged the damage done in Gernika, since in 1997 German President Roman Herzog wrote an apology for the bombing of Gernika and supported various initiatives, including the twinning between Germany, which paid for the construction of a sports centre in Gernika, and the city of Pforzheim and Gernika, as well as other moral compensation activities.

This being the case, President Steinmeier's visit is an event of great historical and symbolic importance, since this is the first time that a German head of state has visited Gernika with a clear will to remember, acknowledge and redress the crimes committed by his fellow citizens.

At the gala dinner offered by the Kings of Spain at the Royal Palace on Thursday, Steinmeier acknowledged that the Germans had committed "serious crimes in Gernika, and that horror and mourning are still alive in many Basque families today."

Addressing the Germans, he asked them not to forget what had happened: "This murder was committed by the Germans. Gernika serves as a reminder of the need to defend peace, freedom and human rights. In this memory we want to take action, now and in the future," he stressed.