Foreign Ministry remembers diplomats who remained loyal to the Republic during the Civil War

Eduardo González The Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted the presentation on Wednesday of the book “In the Service of Democracy,” a collaborative work coordinated by historian Ángel Viñas (Madrid, 1941) that analyzes the role of Spanish diplomats who remained loyal to the Republican government during the Civil War. During the event, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares championed diplomacy as “an active and daily commitment to democracy, international law, and peace,” and stated that the book “is a window to the past, but also a mirror for the present,” because those diplomats defended “the same values that underpin Spanish foreign policy today, in all scenarios: in Ukraine and Gaza, in Sudan or Iran.” “In all of these cases, Spain’s foreign policy is firm in its defense of human rights, equality, cooperation, multilateralism, and peace, and that is why today Spain’s voice is a leading and recognized voice internationally,” he added. The book, which went on sale on April 29, has a foreword by the minister and was jointly published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the publishing house Crítica. Its content focuses on the role of Spanish diplomacy loyal to the Republican government during the Civil War and examines the cases of several embassies. It also dedicates a chapter to female diplomats. For his part, Ángel Viñas, the book’s main author and coordinator, cautioned that “writing history is not about ideological or political propaganda,” but rather “offering our readers a rigorous reconstruction that does not distort or force the available information.” The presentation of the book “In the Service of Democracy” has provided a continuation of the event held in June 2025 at the Ministry headquarters on Marqués de Salamanca Street, where a plaque was unveiled in memory of the Spanish diplomats who worked in the Ministry of State and in Spain's network of embassies and consulates in 1936 and who remained loyal to the democratic system. Of the 275 members of the diplomatic corps at that time, barely fifty remained loyal to the prevailing constitutional order. Recognition was also given to those diplomats who were expelled throughout the dictatorship, such as Julio Cerón and Vicente Girbau. Furthermore, the book represents an update of the collective work “In the Service of the Republic: Diplomats and the Civil War,” coordinated in 2010 by Ángel Viñas himself, and has been updated with new material resulting from his ongoing research.

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