Conclusions

Abstract The Conclusion reflects on how personal memories and collective histories of Spain, Greece, and Portugal’s democratic transitions remain entangled in contemporary politics and identity. Organized around political generations, it emphasizes the interplay between lived experience, intergenerational memory transmission, and the cultural afterlives of the 1970s and 1980s. The analysis highlights Generation 1’s recollections of exaltation and disillusionment, Generation 1.5’s role as transmitters of family traditions and childhood impressions, and Generation 2’s projective memories of the past, which became potent resources for activism during the Great Recession. Sites of memory, cultural artefacts, and renewed political mobilization reveal how the past was continuously reactivated in moments of crisis, producing both inspiration and nostalgia.