The Plenary Session of the Santa Cruz City Council will take cognizance today of the sentence of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands in which the Consisstorio is ordered to review the decision it took 13 years ago to withdraw from Francisco Franco the title of favorite son and the medal of gold from the city that he was granted in 1939, for not having responded in his day to an appeal from an association that questioned that measure. With the knowledge of this sentence, the City Council restarts the file in question, with which, the Consistory clarifies, the will expressed in 2009 to withdraw those honors from the dictator will be maintained.
The decision of the TSJC, according to Efe in February of this year, established that the San Miguel Arcángel Association was entitled to request an ex officio review of that withdrawal of honors, and had the right to receive a response.
The room thus revoked the ruling of the court that heard the complaint of this group in the first instance, the Court of Litigation number 3 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which did not admit the appeal for processing.
On July 17, 2009, the plenary session of the City Council approved by 16 votes in favor, seven against, one blank and one abstention “to withdraw the distinctions of favorite son and gold medal of this city to the dictator Francisco Franco”, some honors that the corporation had granted him in March 1939.
The court understood at the time (April 2021) that there was no point in processing the appeal of the San Miguel Arcángel Association, arguing that Franco had already lost those titles when he died, since they were “for life”. The TSJC completely disagrees with this reasoning, because it believes that a decision such as withdrawing a title can affect the “honor” of the person who received it at the time and “honor”, it adds, does not die with the person.
