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The Autonomous City of Melilla has withdrawn in the early afternoon of this Tuesday the statue of Franco, the last remaining of the dictator on a public road in Spain, a day after the withdrawal was approved by the plenary session of the Melilla Assembly.
The removal of the statue from the public thoroughfare has been carried out without prior notice, and the work has lasted for more than an hour before a strong police deployment and great expectation, because some people who have found out have come to the area to immortalize the moment with their cameras and mobile phones.
The initiative had the support of the three parties that make up the local government (CPM, PSOE and Cs) and the non-attached deputy and former president of Vox, Jesús Delgado, while the PP abstained and Vox voted against.
# 23F
Removal of the statue of Franco, located in front of the wall of ‘Melilla La Vieja’, in the vicinity of the access to the port, approved by the Assembly of Melilla pic.twitter.com/BeE4WwDYFO pic.twitter.com/0huPdKgJsn— Jenner (@jennermostoles) February 23, 2021
Several workers have secured the statue with a harness hanging from a crane and then they began to chip the concrete and brick base, where there was a plaque with a shield of the city, another with the inscription “Melilla, to the commander of the Legion D. Francisco Franco Bahamonde 1921-1977”, and a third with a low relief in which some soldiers appeared.
Once the workers have been able to separate the sculpture from its base, they have lifted the statue with the crane and they have deposited it in a truck, where they have covered it with protective plastic before its transfer.
It was at that moment when some of the people who were contemplating the scene broke into applause, while another shouted “long live the commander”.
Where will it go
The general secretary of United We Can in Melilla, Gema Aguilar, has also witnessed the withdrawal, who, while recording the workers punching the base, has stated that her party wants to know where they are going to take the statue and has asked that “do not fall into the private hands of anyone”.
De Castro had affirmed a few hours before that the statue, after its removal, “will be stored in facilities of the Autonomous City “.
While the works were being developed to remove the monument, the Melilla president has referred to it in his Twitter profile to value its coincidence with the four decades that today are completed by the coup d’état of February 23, 1981.
“The mandate of the plenary session of the Melilla Assembly has just been fulfilled, which yesterday supported the Government’s proposal to remove the statue of Franco. It was the last one in a public space in Spain. Withdrawn. 40 years after 23-F, we give compliance with the Historical Memory Law, “De Castro tweeted.
A few hours earlier, he stated that the plenary session where this withdrawal was approved yesterday was “historic” and, in his opinion, se It should have done “many years ago”, so it is “late”.
Reference-www.elespanol.com
