The Cabildo de Tenerife debates this Friday the withdrawal of honors from Franco

The Socialist and Sí Podemos groups in the Cabildo de Tenerife will defend this Friday in the plenary session of the island corporation a motion in which they urge the withdrawal of honors and distinctions from Franco as the adopted son of the island.

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The proposal of the socialist team seeks to comply with the Law of Historical Memory, which requires the elimination of any type of exaltation of the dictatorship, according to the PSOE in a statement.

Javier Rodríguez Medina, socialist counselor in charge of defending this motion, which is presented jointly with the Sí Podemos Canarias group, assures that the Cabildo de Tenerife must adopt the appropriate agreements to comply with the Law of Historical Memory, as well as with what was stated by the Constitutional Commission of the Congress of Deputies.

For this reason, Rodríguez Medina exposes, it is proposed to the plenary session of the Cabildo de Tenerife "to adopt as the only agreement to withdraw the honors and distinctions granted to General Francisco Franco Bahamonde on August 20, 1936 by which he is named adoptive son of the island of Tenerife".

Rodríguez Medina points out that the regulations establish that "nobody can feel legitimate, as happened in the past, to use violence in order to impose their political convictions and establish totalitarian regimes contrary to freedom and dignity, which deserves condemnation and rejection. of our democratic society.

This proposal is supported, continues the socialist counselor, in that the regulations establish that "public administrations, in the exercise of their powers, must take the appropriate and necessary measures for the removal of shields, insignia, plaques and other objects or commemorative mentions exaltation, personal or collective, of the military uprising, the Civil War and the repression of the dictatorship".

Santa Cruz, a city with numerous remains of the dictatorship

El Cabildo de Tenerife debate este viernes la retirada de los honores a Franco

The capital of Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, still preserves numerous vestiges of the dictatorship, among others, a monument that pays homage to the trip made by Francisco Franco in the Dragon Rapide to start the coup d'état. Said monument, located in front of the port and next to the city's promenades, "does not comply" with the Historical Memory Law. This was concluded by a last report commissioned in 2018 by the City Council to the University of La Laguna (ULL). The people who participated in the investigation led by the professor of History, Maisa Navarro, also detailed other Francoist vestiges that remain in the capital of Tenerife.

However, after the conclusions of the report, the City Council, Governed by the Canarian Coalition, has not made any decision in this regard despite repeated requests in this regard.

Mercedes Pérez Schwartz, president of the Association for the Historical Memory of Tenerife and granddaughter of the last Republican mayor of the city, highlighted in an interview with this newspaper last February that "the study has already been done and there are no excuses for not remove it." Although she said she understood that the pandemic would have paralyzed many issues, she then insisted that the removal of the monument has been requested for many years and violates a 2007 law. In addition, she stressed that it is not an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), nor heritage . "It is the heritage of the fascists and the Spanish right."

Not far from the controversial monument is the oldest public school in the city, called Onesimo Redondo in memory of the considered ideologue of Spanish fascism and founder of the Juntas de Offensiva Nacional Sindicalista (JONS).

From Pablo Casado's mass to Rajoy's promenade

In a situation similar to the one recently carried out by Pablo Casado when he attended a mass in honor of the dictator, in 2018 Mariano Rajoy visited Tenerife and recorded a video playing sports in the city, a video that was later broadcast on his social networks and in the that the then president of the PP was seen accompanied by other popular island leaders right in front of the controversial monument. The Rajoy promenade began on the Rambla de Santa Cruz, popularly known as La Rambla and which until just 10 years ago was called Rambla del General Franco. This great artery leads to the monument in honor of the dictator. At the moment in which the entourage passes in front of the sculpture, Rajoy looks at it and then his companions turn their heads and look to the opposite side to cross in the middle of the road. The author of the video keeps the plane on the sculpture for a few seconds once the walkers have passed.