• Protests over Madrid street names on anniversary of dictator Franco’s death
• Opposition parties seen ready to reverse budget cuts to Historical Memory Law
Hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Madrid on the 41st anniversary of the death of dictator Francisco Franco Sunday to demand the removal of street names, plaques and monuments in Spain’s capital that glorify or otherwise promote the heroic memory of the 1936 military uprising against the democratically elected Republican government, resulting in Spain’s bloody 1936-39 Civil War and 37-year dictatorship that followed.
Meanwhile, opposition parties in Spain’s national Congress are reportedly coming together to reverse the conservative Partido Popular (PP) decision in 2013 to eliminate all federal funding for local and regional initiatives related the country’s 2007 Historical Memory Law, which calls for removal of any names or monuments glorifying the Franco era and for a full accounting of the thousands of victims summarily executed by military and paramilitary forces loyal to Franco.
According to a report in the Barcelona-based daily newspaper El Periódico, political parties in Congress including the Socialist party (PSOE), the Unidos Podemos (United We Can) coalition and various regional parties are united in their resolve to override the PP’s opposition and determined to force the ruling party to reinstate funding for historical memory activities in upcoming negotiations over the current federal budget.
► Read More in Spanish at El Mundo and El Periódico …
