A follower of the Spanish Legion, in December 2017 she shared a photo on Facebook in which she appeared posing with a Franco flag in the background and, a year later, she hung a sign with the image of Franco next to the legend “the great dictator”. “Esmeralda Pastor has just been appointed advisor to the Vox parliamentary group in the Balearic Islands, with a remuneration of 22,246 public euros, just two months after being dismissed from her position as Director General of Justice of the Executive of Aragon, position she held for a year thanks to the governance agreement signed with the PP.
His appointment was made official by the President of the House, Gabriel Le Senne (Vox), after reporting on the document recorded on this subject by the parliamentary spokesperson of Vox, Manuela Cañadas, who underlines that the Pastor will exercise functions of interim and affirms that his remuneration “is adapted to his dedication, his responsibilities and the work he must carry out full time in Parliament”.
This appointment, however, is starting to raise dust in the Balearic Islands: “Hiring known and recognized Francoists with public money should not be possible. With Vox in Parliament, the Francoist drift continues, without complexes, of the main institution of our country”, complains the deputy of Més for Mallorca Marta Carrió in a message published in ‘X’.
It should be remembered that Esmeralda Pastor was appointed Director General of Justice of Aragon on August 31, 2023. A few days later, the photograph was revealed in which she appears posing in front of a pre-constitutional flag with the eagle shield . of San Juan, which led the PSOE, Podemos, Sumar and the Chunta Aragonesista (CHA) to demand his dismissal for “apology of Francoism” and to demand explanations from the regional president, Jorge Azcón.
With her, he was also appointed Director General of Hunting and Fishing. Jorge Valerowho, in the summer of 2018, published on his Facebook profile a Twitter message from the Legion recalling the birth of its founder, José Millán-Astray, which also said “Long live Spain!” Long live the King! Long live the Legion! Azcón even justified the retention in office of the two general directors by arguing that the declarations of these two public officials were prior to the exercise of their functions.
From Podemos they criticized the fact that the then head of the Government of Aragon in matters of Justice posed “proudly in front of the flag of the Franco regime, a totally illegal flag that symbolizes the more than 40 years during which our country was plunged into a regime of terror, isolated from the world after a bloody civil war which left hundreds of thousands dead, missing, exiled, starved and setbacks at all levels. Likewise, the Socialist Party demanded the “immediate” dismissal by Jorge Azcón of the pastor for “non-respect of constitutional values” and “display of Francoism” through his social networks.
Also mentioned at the time was the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who regretted Pastor’s images and criticized the fact that Azcón did not fire her by relying on Vox to form his executive. After the revelation of the controversial photographs, the current advisor of Vox in the Balearic Islands deleted the message that contained the photo with the Franco flag, as revealed by the Sumar Plurinational Group Jorge Pueyo.
Beyond his praise of Francoism, on April 18, 2020, Pastor also shared a meme in which, with a photo of Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias, he mocked the measures taken by the government to contain the COVID-19 pandemic . The director general remained in office for more than a year, until September 19, when she was fired after the far-right party left the regional executives due to differences in the management of distribution migrant minors.
