By Natalia Torres / EFE. | On March 11, the Cabildo de Tenerife announced that no file will be initiated to declare the well-known monument to Franco in Santa Cruz an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), as requested by the Association of San Miguel Arcángel. This decision was supported by the report commissioned to the University of La Laguna in which it was pointed out that it lacked exceptional artistic values. The aforementioned association appealed to the court, at the same time that it requested precautionary measures to protect the sculpture of Juan de Ávalos while the appeal was being resolved.
Yesterday, the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) announced the agreement of the past day 13 of the Second Section of the Chamber of Administrative Litigationbased in Tenerife, to uphold the appeal of the aforementioned association against the decision of the Cabildo de Tenerife and protect this vestige while the aforementioned file is being resolved.
The TSJC has ruled, with precautionary measures, once the Court number 3 of the capital had dismissed them.
The Canarian High Court points out that the object of this appeal “is not the confrontation” of the monument to Franco on Avenida de Anaga with the Historical Memory Law of 20/2022, something that would give rise to “an undoubted appearance of good law” in favor of the Administration, but to determine “the possible cultural interest” of the sculpture of Juan de Ávalos.
All the time, the Canarian high court abounds, which is the Law of Democratic Memory, “with absolute coherence”, which “puts a brake” on “possible excesses that seek the destruction of something that is considered of cultural or artistic interest.” In this case, the law provides for “the possibility of reinterpretation or resignification” of the monument “in another sense than it could have as a Francoist monument,” adds the TSJC.
Likewise, the sentence, against which an appeal is possible, emphasizes that “arguing a priori in the precautionary phase about the scope of the artistic or cultural interest of a sculpture, devoid, on the other hand, of Francoist symbols, does imply a true intrusion into the substance of the matter”.
This last statement has caused surprise both in the Cabildo and in the Vice Ministry of Culture, where they recall that various studies clearly point out the homage to the figure of Franco behind the work of Juan de Ávalos.
Yesterday, the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, recalled that “neither the technicians from the Cabildo’s Heritage area nor the University of La Laguna, to which we commissioned a study on the monument to Franco, consider that there is no artistic element that justifies its maintenance”. Martín added that they are waiting for what the court determines, in relation to the appeal presented by the San Miguel Arcángel association on the decision of the Cabildo not to initiate the BIC file. They explain from the Island Corporation that only a judge can force the institution to start that file, so everything remains the same until that pronouncement is given.
The Deputy Minister of Culture, Juan Márquez, for his part, expressed his surprise at the statement that there was no Francoist symbology, to reiterate that “we are firmly committed to the laws of historical memory and the defense of democratic values. From the Government of the Canary Islands we will continue to explore all legal and administrative channels”.
The Executive had previously announced that it was studying to act ex officio to remove the monument due to the refusal of the City Council.
“From the Santa Cruz City Hall yesterday they did not want to rule on this matter, remembering that it is a judicial process in which the Consistory is not immersed, and the San Miguel Arcángel Association is”, he indicates.
The last of the recognitions to the dictator who is still standing in Spain
On February 19, 1966, the inauguration of the monument to Franco took place in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. This is how it was reported in the DIARIO DE AVISOS edition of February 22 of that year, in which it is detailed that, “at one in the afternoon on Saturday, a brilliant and emotional act took place in Santa Cruz on the occasion of the delivery, by the commission appointed for this purpose and chaired by the Civil Governor and Provincial Head of the Movimiento al Caudillo, to the City Council of the capital”.
More than 50 years later, with several studies and laws in which its Francoist nature is evident, its withdrawal from public roads is still being discussed.
removing this monument is bottomless stupidity, you don’t destroy such testimonies of history, especially since this monument is very unusual and different from others.