The leader of the Socialist Group in the Tenerife Cabildo, Pedro Martín, emphasised this Monday that the socialists are against the statement made by the president and vice president of the corporation, defending the “resignification” of the Franco monument in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. This decision is made without awaiting the completion of the file for its declaration, or not, as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC).
Martín clarified that there are reasons to suspect that the outcome of the file might be unfavourable, and thus Rosa Dávila and Lope Afonso would be “preemptively acting in favour of the sculpture.” The general secretary of the PSOE of Tenerife noted that “in the last term we commissioned studies from the University of La Laguna and the Historical Heritage Technical Unit of the Cabildo. The conclusion was that it lacks exceptional artistic value,” he asserted.
Pedro Martín expressed his disappointment that CC and PP “have already declared support for retaining Franco’s statue, without waiting for the findings of the experts in the Cabildo file, which has yet to commence. Nothing can be “resignified”, he further stated, without concrete conclusions regarding the BIC. To make matters worse, the president of the Cabildo has once again succumbed to her craving for attention. She jumps ahead of the reports regarding the relevance or otherwise of the qualification by Cabildo specialists, and moreover, she circumvents the City Council by assigning a future purpose to the sculpture without the input of the Santa Cruz City Council, which owns the construction site.”
Martín acknowledges that judicial rulings must be adhered to, and in this instance, the court has decreed that the file should be initiated so that the Government of the Canary Islands can make a decision after evaluating the relevant reports.
Moreover, it should be noted that the ruling does not mandate the declaration of the monument as a Site of Cultural Interest, making the swift announcement of the “resignification” illogical, especially since, during the previous term led by Martín himself in 2022, both the studies from the University of La Laguna and the Historical Heritage Unit of the Cabildo concluded that the monument possesses no exceptional cultural values.
All of this, he indicates, could lead to an expectation of a negative assessment from the technicians during the process of the file for the BIC declaration.
The general secretary of the socialists has also stated that it is “incomprehensible” for the Cabildo president’s decision to be made public without the technicians or the Government of the Canary Islands first fulfilling their responsibilities, without consulting the opposition to achieve utmost consensus on such a sensitive matter, and without even discussing it with the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, the owner of the sculpture.
In the view of the Socialist Group in the Tenerife Council, Rosa Dávila speaks of a harmony “that is not being practiced, neither within the corporation nor among the institutions that hold competence in this matter.” Instead, he has proclaimed “a decision that undermines the spirit of harmony solely in pursuit of being in the limelight, creating more issues than it resolves,” he remarked.
