The Superior Court of Justice of Canary Islands (TSJC) has suspended the catalog of Francoist vestiges of the Government of the Canary Islandsthus agreeing with the Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the appeal that he presented when he understood that the document only focused on the chicharrero municipality.
The Second Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the TSJC states in the order issued on April 28 that “estimates the request for precautionary measure, agreeing to suspend the effectiveness of the Order of the Ministry of Education, Universities, Culture and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands of November 4, 2022 approving the Catalog of Francoist symbols, streets, monuments and mentions existing in the territorial area of the Canary Islands”, in addition to ordering the costs of the aforementioned regional department for the processing of the separate piece.
Once the position of the TSJC was known, the mayor of Santa Cruz recalls “we already said at the time that the Government of the Canary Islands was not doing things in accordance with the Historical Memory Law and that this way of acting was an attack on Santa Cruz. The only thing we ask is that the law be complied with in all its articles. «In the document that has been made public, monuments and enclaves of Santa Cruz de Tenerife are outlined, or it is not a general catalog of all the Islands, as required by the aforementioned law»as the mayor José Manuel Bermúdez has always argued.
The room, under the presidency of Juan Ignacio Moreno-Luque Casariego and with the participation of Jaime Guilarte Martín-Calero and Evaristo gonzalez González -the latter as speaker-, recognizes the “active legitimacy” of the Santa Cruz City Council to file the appeal. From there, he justifies his decision to suspend the catalog of Francoist vestiges in that “the assumption of ostensible prosperability of the claim is present, since a mere reading of the appealed order is enough to appreciate that he does not publish the catalog in the bulletin, despite the fact that it is part of it, but refers to it being consulted on the department’s website”, to reiterate that “the publication of any administrative decision that must be published must be complete and in the official bulletin that appropriate”.
In this sense, it recalls a judgment of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court of October 16, 2009 to state that “the lack of publication of the plan will prevent the Administration from imposing it on individuals – who, where appropriate, may challenge the act of application based precisely on the lack of publication of the plan – but it will not produce its invalidity. It is therefore a defect of effectiveness, this is true. However, by virtue of the privileges of declarative and executive self-protection, the individual cannot by himself ignore an administrative action alleging ineffectiveness, but this must be declared expressly, in administrative and judicial channels.
The magistrates of the TSJC are even clearer in the legal reasoning when they state that “the publication (of the catalog of Francoist vestiges) must be complete and in the corresponding official bulletin and there is no reference to a web page of a Ministry whose content In addition, it could be varied by the administrative department that has control of it.
And adds: «Conclusion that would not change if it were finally determined that the catalog does not have a normative character but an act, because also if it is an administrative act, what is published must be published in its entirety in the corresponding official bulletin».
«That this is the reason for the suspension that we agreed on is of greater importance because it directly influences the element of the risk of default. Indeed, I feel so clear that the cause of suspension would be irreparable to allow the application of the appealed provision, since it would not be reparable that a court of justice had allowed the effectiveness of a norm that ostensibly lacks it”, he states, after recognizes that “in terms of the general interest, nothing interests this (court) more than compliance with the laws and the legal system requires full publication.”
The TSJC agrees with Bermúdez
The order issued by the TSJC agrees with the mayor of Santa Cruz de TenerifeJosé Manuel Bermúdez, who on February 8 announced that the City Council would present the corresponding appeals against the order issued from the Vice Ministry of Culture and Heritage of the Government of the Canary Islands to eliminate “immediately” and “definitely the public space” a total of 79 Francoist vestiges.
Among the vestiges mentioned are the monument to Franco (1966), located on Avenida de Anaga; the lions of the Serrador Bridge (1943); the plaques of the National Housing Institute (1957) or the tombstone for the Fallen of Igueste de Saint Andrew (1975). The monument to the Fallen (1947), located in the Spain Squaremay be resigned.
Regarding the change of names, the General Serrador bridge (1943), Calvo Sotelo street (1936) or Francisco Aguilar y Paz promenade (1994), as well as neighborhoods such as La Victoria, and educational centers such as the Fray Albino school ( 1944), among others. In addition, It also includes the Nuestra Señora de África Market, whose name must be changed, in addition to the honors and distinctions of more than 130 people.
The Santa Cruz City Council argued that there is no legal certainty to remove the Francoist symbols in the capital, since the Government of the Canary Islands, “and as established by the Historical Memory Law itself, must prepare a catalog at the regional level, of all the Islands and of all the municipalities, and not only of Santa Cruz».
Although the Historical Memory Law was approved in 2007, the Vice Ministry of Culture urges the Santa Cruz City Council to comply with it, among other local administrations, in 2017, a requirement that the city council meets with the study that the professor of Art History commissions of the University of La Laguna María Isabel Navarro on the vestiges. The Canarian Executive agrees on December 14, 2018 the preparation of the catalog of Francoist vestiges developed by María Isabel Navarro herself -author of the study contributed by Santa Cruz-, and Ricardo Guerra Palmero and Dácil Perdigón and Dailo Barco Machado, in which They fix 79 vestiges, according to what are collected in some 3,000 pages.
Said document, promoted by the Vice Ministry of Culture, is approved on November 17, 2022, which orders the removal of the “illegal” symbols, which the City Council refuses because it understands that the catalog is incomplete and has only been done on the measure of Santa Cruz, when it comes to a study for all the Canary Islands. That motivates the appeal that is now admitted by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.
In the time that has elapsed since the appeal filed by the Santa Cruz Corporation before the TSJC, on February 17 the Port Authority proceeded to remove the propeller of the Canarias cruise ship.
