In the Spanish enclave of Melilla, the very last statue of Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain as dictator until 1975, disappeared on Tuesday.
Gloriously, the last statue of the despot disappears from the Spanish streets. On Tuesday afternoon, workers came with drills and demolition hammers to remove the pedestal under the bronze cast. The cement turned out to be sturdy, because the statue is placed in the truck by crane after two hours. There is both applause and boos from the curious people who have spontaneously gathered around the statue. “Franco saved our city,” shouts a former soldier, while local police keep everyone at a distance. A few try to get a piece of the pedestal. One of the workers gives Francisco Franco one last pat on the back before the statue moves, wrapped in bubble wrap, to a municipal warehouse.
The removal of the statue was unexpected for the spectators. “For fear of protests from the far right, the government kept the action quiet,” says analyst Ignacio Cembrero. “Everyone was caught by surprise.” The president of the autonomous city, Eduardo De Castro, insisted that the removal happened as quickly as possible. On Tuesday morning, De Castro said that through the action, Melilla is “now on the path to full democracy, after the statue had frozen the city in the past.”
In that past, Franco and Melilla are inextricably linked. Franco started his military career as a lieutenant stationed in Melilla, North Africa. The enclave had been Spanish territory since the fifteenth century. When local Rif tribes resisted the Spanish occupation of North Africa in the 1920s, Franco defended the city with the Spanish Foreign Legion. The military successes made him a national hero, ready to cross to the Spanish mainland and seize power.
The debate surrounding Franco’s statues has been raging in Spain for some time. In 2007, the national parliament approved the Law of Historical Memory. This was to result in the disappearance of all monuments from public space and the victims of the Francoist regime receiving compensation. But local authorities often had a final say in the matter.
With the Law of Democratic Memory, approved last year, Madrid is back in control. The estimated 112,000 victims of Franco’s regime will be identified through DNA testing. After all, they are still buried anonymously throughout Spain. The remains of Franco himself were removed from his immense crypt near the Valley of the Fallen and reburied near Madrid.
While Franco fell from his pedestal everywhere in Spain, the city council of Melilla stood firm. According to them, the statue was not about glorifying the dictator, but rather as ‘a reminder of the military Rif campaign’. Until the 2019 elections, the conservative Partido Popular (PP) party was in power, which claimed that removing such statues would open unnecessary wounds from the past. The party is often accused in Spain of not taking a clear position towards Francoism.
However, the city’s new government did not mince words and did what seemed impossible for decades: the bill was quickly approved by the government parties this week.
This report was realized with the support of Journalismfund.
