40 Years Later, Spain’s Franco Regime Still Being Dismantled

Daybreak in Madrid on March 17, 2005 marked a symbolic end of an era for many Spaniards when the city’s last remaining statue of former dictator Francisco Franco was removed. Ten years later, several proposals have reignited the debate to further purge the city, and country, of Francoist symbols. Citizens and politicians renewed their calls for the removal of Franco’s remains from the Valley of the Fallen, where forty thousand fallen civil war soldiers are buried, and to change the names of Madrid’s streets that bear reference to the Franco Regime.

The Valley of the Fallen, constructed near Madrid during Franco’s regime, is a memorial to those killed during the civil war. To some, the placement of Franco’s remains at the memorial is a tribute to fascism, which many associate with the regime.

Supporters of these changes say reminders of Franco, who led an authoritarian government for 39 years following Spain’s civil war (1936-1939) and directed the killing of hundreds of thousands of political opponents, should not remain four decades after El Caudillo, or the leader, fell from power.

“[The memorial] is the only case in Europe in which the remains of a criminal coup rest beside those of its victims, a monument to public ownership,” the Forum for Memory Federation, which supports these removals, stated in November.

Madrid’s street names are not exempt from scrutiny either.

According to El País, a street referencing the División Azul, a military division of Spanish soldiers Franco summoned to fight alongside the Nazis on the Eastern Front, and Plaza de Arriba España, a street named after the slogan (“Up with Spain”) of Franco’s political movement, are included among street names up for change.

In 2005, Madrid’s last statue of Franco was removed due to general public sentiment. Now, any new removals or street name changes must work within the Historical Memory Law, passed in 2007.  The law calls for the removal of all Francoist symbols in public spaces and prevents public funds from being used for private entities still displaying such symbols.

While the Historical Memory Law gives impetus to a more widespread purge of Francoist symbols, the institutionalized process slows down the actual removal by requiring political consensus, as opposed to public sentiment.

Madrid Mayor Manuela Carmena of the leftist party Now Madrid (AM) plans to comply with the law and “will change the names that are not in line with the state law on Historical Memory,” but, she added, it will require “a coordinated effort between neighborhoods and social entities,” according to El País.

This “coordinated effort” is proving precarious. On Nov. 25, during a Madrid vote to change Franco-related street names, Carmena’s party abstained, amid a wide lack of consensus led by opposition from the conservative Popular Party. In a debate muddled by a country that has never officially investigated the crimes of Franco’s regime, many believe a sweeping removal of Francoistsymbols will not come quickly.