Europe

Far-right expected to gather at Madrid monument despite outcry

Tribute to Romanian fascists the latest focal point for debate over Spain’s civil war legacy and Franco dictatorship

Hundreds of symbols seen to glorify General Francisco Franco, his regime or those who fought for him remain in Spain. Photograph: Getty Images

Guy Hedgecoe's face
Guy Hedgecoe in Madrid
Fri Jan 12 2024 - 19:27

A monument on scrubland on the edge of a Madrid suburb has become the latest focal point for the debate over how Spain tackles the legacy of its civil war and subsequent dictatorship.

On Saturday neo-Nazis are expected to gather at the Monument to the Fallen of Majadahonda to commemorate the death of Romanian fascists Ion Mota and Vasile Marin. It has become an annual tradition for members of the Spanish and Romanian far-right to pay tribute to both men who died in the town while fighting in the 1936-39 Spanish civil war on the side of the military uprising against the democratically-elected republican government.

Francisco Franco, who led the right-wing military rebellion and then became dictator, ordered the monument – a large block of stone with four arches topped with a metal cross – to be built in 1948. It bears the names of the two Romanians and says they died “for God, Spain and Romania in 1937″.

However, efforts to eliminate such symbols of Francoist fascism have made the annual tribute increasingly controversial. David Rodríguez Cabrera, a Socialist Party councillor in Majadahonda who has campaigned against the monument and the January 13th gatherings, said “there are homes and local people near the monolith who have to watch people in uniforms singing fascist hymns. It’s not normal in the 21st century.”

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In 2015 Majadahonda’s town hall voted to demolish the monument, with only the conservative Popular Party (PP) not voting in favour and instead abstaining. However, that proposal was not legally binding and a local far-right group alleged that the monument could not be removed anyway because it was on private property.

In October 2023, the United Left party in the town made another attempt to get rid of it, invoking a historical memory law introduced by the Socialist-led government of Pedro Sánchez the previous year. Similar efforts were made by the Sumar left-wing coalition, which raised the issue in the Spanish parliament.

The 2022 law implemented a broad array of measures dealing with historical memory and providing redress to victims of the Franco regime. It also decreed the removal of all symbols “situated in public spaces which commemorate via glorification, individual or collective, the military uprising and the dictatorship”. When they are situated on private or church-owned land the law states their fate depends on the owner of the property. The United Left alleged that the Majadahonda monument is on land that is open to and used by the general public – a fact which has led to it being repeatedly vandalised.

The government responded to the request for the monument to be demolished by promising to take the “relevant action” once it has carried out the regulatory process. On January 25th the Socialist Party in Majadahonda has proposed a new motion calling for the removal of the monument. However, with the PP now controlling the town hall its approval is in doubt.

Many similar monuments have been removed across Spain in recent years. Also in 2019 the Sánchez government exhumed the remains of Franco, who died in 1975, from his enormous mausoleum, the Valley of the Fallen, and transferred them to a low-key cemetery.

Parties on the right, such as the PP and the far-right Vox, have spoken out against such initiatives, alleging that they stir up old divisions.

However, hundreds of symbols seen to glorify Franco, his regime or those who fought for him remain. At least 200 are in the region of Madrid alone, according to the Should Disappear website, which catalogues such symbols, including religious monuments, statues and street names.

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