United We Can present this Friday a motion before the Plenary session of the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in which he asks the municipal government to abide by the imminent order of the Canarian government that will approve the Catalogue of Francoist vestiges, and remove them from public thoroughfares, including the Monument to Franco.
In parallel, UP proposes that a participatory process be opened to replace this sculptural ensemble with an artistic work with a fountain that does not generate social division from the point of view of democratic values.
Likewise, in the motion, presented by Espinosa, it is urged that the procedures be initiated to, as quickly as possible, “invalidate all the distinctions, honors, titles, medals and other recognitions collected in the study carried out by specialists from the University of La Laguna commissioned by the City Council”, list ratified by the Canary Islands Historical Memory Technical Commission.
The mayor of UP recalls that there is a legal obligation to remove elements, symbols and distinctions that extol the Franco dictatorship, after the enactment of the Historical Memory Laws, a state law in 2007 and, later, another regional one.
But the councilor emphasizes that “it would not be necessary to apply any law to remove the monument, but the mere political will to do so; that is to say, the only imperative that would suffice to stop being the only city in Spain that pays homage to the bloodthirsty dictator is that of public and political ethics, that of conscience as democrats and as people” .
Espinosa considers it unacceptable that, “almost half a century after the reestablishment of democracy in Spain, a monument continues in such a central place in Santa Cruz on public roads that extols the dictator and the dictatorship.”
