Transitions as Projection

Abstract Following the previous chapter’s focus on cultural memory, this chapter explores how the ‘agonistic’ past became resignified in the present: how the collective memory of 1970s grassroots movements fed forward to similar movements in the 2010s, and analyses their interconnections. The focus is on how Generation 2 challenged standard narratives of the transitions as ‘finished business’ during the politically heated era over 2009–15. The chapter discusses the role of memory in the changing public and intellectual domains in Spain, Portugal, and Greece through the ‘projective memories’ of Generation 2, which encapsulate their uneasy relationship to the personal, collective, and cultural memories of those who came before. An intergenerational competition is revealed: G2 did not witness the transitions first-hand, but were born to those who either experienced or participated in them, and in the making of the new post-1970s democratic order. At times, this revisionism was attacked by G1, who defended the transitional settlements. However, G2’s critique found willing supporters in the older generations, who felt the need to repoliticize in response to the socioeconomic crisis.