International Brigades monolith defaced in backlash over removal of ‘Franquista’ monuments in Madrid

International Brigades monument defaced at Complutense university. Photo: Óscar Rodríguez / Público
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• Fourth attack in two years targets mayor Carmena and ‘Murderous Reds’ •

Vandals in Madrid have attacked a monument to the International Brigades that fought on the Republican side in Spain’s 1936-39 Civil War, with spray painted slogans against “Murderous Reds” (Rojos asesinos) and against the city’s new mayor, Manela Carmena.

The attack by right-wing vandals, which is at least the fourth during the past two years, appears to be directly related to the Carmena administration’s precipitous move to take down monuments to Franco-era heroes, despite to a promised four-month study and debate by all parties represented on the Madrid city council.

Carmena, a former Spanish Communist party member and retired activist judge, has come in for particularly venomous attacks. Her administration agreed this week to restore to their original locations two Franco-era monuments recently removed, one to poorly trained junior officers killed in large numbers while fighting in Franco’s Nationalist army and another to a right-wing Falangista labour leader murdered in 1935 by Republicans.

► Read More in Spanish at Público and 20 minutos …

► Read More in Spanish about ‘Franquista’ monuments at 20 minutos …

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