Posted on 03/16/2009 6:50:11 PM PDT by atomic conspiracy
The last statue of General Franco in Spain is to be withdrawn almost 34 years after the death of the dictator. The regional government of Melilla, one of Spain's North African enclaves along with Ceuta, said the bronze statue of General Franco would be removed "within the period of 15 days". The move means no more commemorative figures will stand in public streets to the man who ruled Spain between the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 and his death in November, 1975. Daniel Conesa, spokesman for the Melilla regional government, said the statue, which shows Franco standing, would be kept in storage then transferred to a military museum.
The Melilla government is removing the effigy of El Caudillo in compliance with the controversial Law of Historical Memory, which offers redress to victims or their relatives who were killed or "disappeared" during the Civil War and its aftermath. Under the law, introduced in 2007, local authorities must remove symbols of the dictator or his supporters such as statues or plaques and change road names associated with the regime. But many right-wing local authorities have resisted attempts by campaigners to force them to comply with the legislation. Melilla had refused to take down its statue of Franco, claiming it was erected in 1975 as a tribute to the "commander of the Legion of Melilla", not as a homage to the dictator. General Franco fought in the Spanish Rif war against Moroccan tribesman and, in 1921, led a partial victory in Melilla. As the law did not give councils any cash to remove statues of Franco or his supporters, many dragged their heals over the subject. Last year, Santander city council removed the last statue to General Franco still standing on the Spanish mainland.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Getting rid of his statues will not mean that he never existed, however much the media and the left might wish that were the case. He is still dead though.
I thought I heard this guy was dead.
they probably call him ‘right wing’, right??
I am sure it was a libertarian state under his rule
/sarc
It depends who the other choice is.
We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
I think on balance Franco was a good guy. He certainly treated his enemies far more benevolently that they would have treated him. He was a staunch ally of the U.S. during the cold war.
He accepted help from Mussolini and Hitler but didn’t give them much in return.
Spain during Franco’s rule was a far better place to live than say Cuba, or Cambodia or China.
Franco’s government exerted itself on his orders to give sanctuary to Jews. The Spanish embassy in Greece was instructed to give visas to any Jew who claimed to be of Sephardic (i.e., once Spanish) descent—no questions asked.
Once Franco himself greeted a train of arriving Jewish refugees. (He may have had some Jewish ancestry himself.) Refugees didn’t find it easy in Spain, but they weren’t in danger of their lives, either.
Oddly, a few of the axis countries (Finland, the Italian populace, Bulgaria, Spain) sometimes did more to help Jews than some allied countries.
Debatable ... but I'm probably one of the only FReepers in this forum that saw him while he was alive. It was May 1966 and I was passing thru the Barcelona Airport on my way to Nice, France. Franco was flying out of Barcelona, presumably to Madrid, and I happened to be there at the same time. Security was enormous, however, I did manage a glimpse of him as he boarded his aircraft on the tarmac. He was perhaps 200 yards away ... and had a military entourage seeing him off.
Having said that, the question of living under a dictator is a different matter....
“This just in....General Franco is still dead”...
That took longer than I thought. :-)
You know I don’t think Russia should be tearing down it’s statues of Stalin (at least not all of them) any more than we should be tearing up our confederate flags; you don’t accomplish anything by completely denigrating your own history.
Was Franco a god guy? I would say yes. He defeated the communists, saved thousands of Jews, and played a major role in the defeat of Hitler. That’s good enough for me.
Was everyone paranoid?
I'm sure... he had signed death warrants for thousand of Spaniards since the end of the Civil War. I can just imagine how many folks just hated him for that and would love to take a pot shot at him...
Franco was neither a good guy or bad, he took care of Spain. If Franco would have join the Axis forces The Mediterranean would have been sealed to the allies. Gibraltar would have fallen & there would have been no “TORCH”. There would have been Submarine pins in Cadiz and all of the S. Atlantic would have been their hunting grounds. That is why the Allies never bothered Franco, they owed him, big time.
They should keep one statue to remind themselves how they were all in the Resistance for 40 years.
No....just controlled.
If anyone hasn't, read Orwell's “Homage to Catalonia,” (about his days fighting for the Socialists in the Spanish Civil War). It gives a very fair and frank description of how asinine the many leftist factions were.
After I read Homage, I could never read Hemingway's melodramatic piece of crap “For Whom the Bell Tolls” again. Talk about a steaming pile of propaganda.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.