• Towns with names honoring Franco & Nationalist generals come under fire •
The ill-timed release of a short-list of Madrid streets with Franco-era names being considerered for a name change in keeping with Spain’s 2007 Historic Memory Law has embroiled the administration of Mayor Manuela Carmena in yet another controversy, when it was revealed the list included Spanish artistic and literary figures of the stature of painter Salvador Dalí and Catalan author Josep Pla.
The Madrid controversy has caused Carmena’s government to drop the organization chosen to compile the listing, but elsewhere across Spain efforts appear to be picking up steam to alter the names of streets, plazas and towns honoring former dictator Francisco Franco, the generals of his victorious Nationalist army and other right-wing heroes of Spain’s 1936-39 Civil War.
An attorney who previously used the 2007 law to sue more than 40 different cities and towns in Spain over the continued presence of Franco-era plaques and symbols now threatens lawsuits against 11 towns if they do not immediately remove Franco-era references from their names.
► Read Story on Madrid street names in Spanish at El País or El Economista …
► Read about towns with Franco-era names in English at The Local …
► Read about towns with Franco-era names in Spanish at 20 minutos …
► Backgrounder on Franco-era name changes in English at the BBC …
