Last statue of Franco to be removed from the Spanish public way

Last statue of Franco to be removed from the Spanish public way
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By m.p. - Apr 8, 2009 - 6:48 PM

The statue of Franco in Melilla – EFE.

It stands at the entrance to the port in the Spanish enclave of Melilla

The last statue of Francisco Franco to remain on the Spanish public way is to be removed after Easter. It stands at the entrance to the port in the Autonomous City of Melilla and is likely, EFE reports, to be moved to Melilla’s Military Museum once building work at its current location begins, as the City government had promised last September. The Melilla statue became the last on a street in Spain after a horseback figure went from Santander last December.

The statue is one of the few in Spain to have been erected since the return to democracy, and was put up during the government of the UCD party in 1977. It is dedicated not to the General or to the Spanish head of state, but to the Francisco Bahamonde of 1921 who, as Commander of the Legion, saved the City from a siege.

The state legal service, the Abogacía del Estado, has meanwhile announced an appeal to the Supreme Court against another court’s decision that the removal of a statue of Franco from a square in Madrid was incorrect. The bronze statue of the general on horseback in the Plaza de San Juan de la Cruz was removed by the Development Ministry in March 2005, and the Madrid High Court ruled this March that the Ministry had no right to do so as it was not state property . The court instead attributed ownership to the Universidad Complutense, which the Abogacía is arguing against in its appeal.

The court was unable to order the statue returned to its location, as that would not be possible under the new Historical Memory Law.

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