With grandiloquent words, the delegate of the Government of Spain in Euskadi, the socialist Marisol Garmendia, celebrated this afternoon that the Francoist shield that presided over one of the two towers of the Subdelegation of Alava and that was the last symbol of this type on a Basque street. There are even videos showing the physical removal of the emblem, affixed in 1953. Garmendia opposed the diligence of his party in respecting the laws of democratic memory and recognition of the victims of the civil war and the dictatorship to the steps taken behind the PP and Vox. And he invited the mayor of Vitoria, Maider Etxebarria, also of the PSE-EE, to eliminate the street dedicated to the second illegitimate mayor of Vitoria after the coup d’état of 1936, José Lejarreta, something that was never really on the agenda. plans of the various town halls of the capital since he was supposed to be an advisor who supported local festivals.
“This is an important day for Vitoria,” Garmendia stressed in Basque and Spanish, in memory of the “hundreds” of Alavas who fought the dictatorship. “We are fulfilling the mandate of the Spanish government’s Democratic Memory Law, by removing forever the Francoist shield, an unconstitutional and antidemocratic shield, from the façade of this public building. And those who deny this reality of the extreme right and the autonomous governments that I govern with the PP only fuel division, hatred and intolerance towards those who think and feel differently and authoritarian populism,” he told the media.
The reality, however, is that the Francoist shield has survived the 1981 shield regulations, the 2007 Historical Memory Law, the 2022 reform and regional regulations on the matter, which provided without exception for the removal of this type of symbology. In fact, the current government has not met several deadlines that it had set for itself. Finally, it has included the removal of some renovation work on the official complex of Olaguíbel, which is currently renovating the old Palace of Justice, abandoned for years and where the emblem was hung. This operation began on Friday and is now complete. In the other turret, the offices of the Subdelegation, a constitutional shield has been displayed for years. In that of the Francoist shield, there remains a diaphanous square that, in principle, will not be filled with anything.
In Vitoria there is another similar shield. It is inside the new cathedral, that of Mary Immaculate, but it has been covered with a cloth for years. In addition, a street is maintained by the mayor José Lejarreta, who, among other measures, collaborated with the exceptional courts by citing the names of republican officials. You can learn more here about this figure redesigned by some local historiographies to make him the “mayor of the blouses”, that is, the promoter of parties and groups.
“I have no doubt that the mayor is already working to continue respecting the law, as we have done today with this shield, and that in Vitoria we continue to recover dignity,” said delegate Garmendia, when asked about Lejarreta. The former mayor of Vitoria, Gorka Urtaran, went so far as to say that “although he was mayor during Franco’s time,” he was a good person who did a lot for the city and for the people of Vitoria” and his successor, Etxebarria, has never been clear on this issue.
