Spain to declassify several pre-1982 documents, including on withdrawal from Moroccan Sahara

The Spanish government is set to declassify several documents dating from before 1982, with historians betting on revealing new details about major events like Spain’s withdrawal from the Moroccan Sahara in 1975, the Gibraltar dispute, and the country’s transition to democracy, among others.

Spanish outlet El Pais noted that researchers and historians hope the documents will explain “Spain’s hasty abandonment after the Green March during Franco’s final days, including the U.S. diplomatic pressure, which is currently known only from foreign sources and not from Spanish archives.”

Spain’s Council of Ministers approved a draft Law last Tuesday on Classified Information to replace Franco’s Official Secrets Law, which is Spain’s secrecy law, according to the same source.

The draft orders the automatic declassification of documents more than 45 years old when the law takes effect, unless their release is exceptionally deemed a threat to national security or defence.

The source noted that the Spanish government expects to pass the law by the end of this year, with it taking effect in late 2026 after a 12‑month gap between its publication and enforcement.

Several researchers and historians have expressed keen interest in this draft law, as they have long relied on foreign archives to study Spain’s history. They were often denied access to their own country’s records and saw foreign notes and talks but not the original Spanish documents.

Yet, they said they do not expect the files, once opened, “to produce an unprecedented or bombshell discovery that radically rewrites their understanding of the dictatorship or the democratic transition, but rather to explain how power operated during that turbulent period and to confirm or correct the accounts of those who lived it.”