The last statue of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was removed from the gates of Melilla, a Spanish enclave and autonomous city on the northwest coast of Africa on Tuesday.
To destroy the brick platform on which the statue stands, a group of workers carried out a mechanical bulldozer and heavy drill, lifted the piece with a chain around its neck and wrapped it around the back of a truck with plastic.
This statue, erected three years after Franco’s death in 1978, celebrates his role as commander of the Spanish Legion in the Battle of the Rif, a battle that took place in the 1920s. Spain France against the Berber tribes in the mountainous region of the Rifles in Morocco.
“This is a historic day for Mellilla,” Elena Fernandez Trevino, education and culture director of the Enclave, said Monday after the local assembly voted to remove the monument, saying it was the only statue dedicated to the dictator. Still in the public domain in Europe “.
Only the far-right party, Vox, voted against the move, as the statue celebrated Franco’s military role, not his dictatorship, and therefore the Historical Memory Act of 2007, which called for the removal of all symbols associated with the Franco regime. Do not apply.
The Spanish government made several significant moves under the law, including the capture of the former dictator’s summer palace in September.
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