New blow to the Popular Party and Vox government in Elche for its decision to preserve the Francoist cross of the fallen on Paseo de Germanías, a central square in the municipality that is currently being renovated with part of the European EDUSI funds. The European Commission has responded to a question from the Socialist Party of Elche and has resolved that “the operations supported by the funds will comply with EU and national law that applies to them”, that is, the current Democratic Memory Law. “If this is not the case,” the letter continues, “the amount of the EU contribution already paid to the beneficiary will be refunded to the corresponding financing program.” This reform, planned with a total budget of 1.1 million euros, was contemplated in the EDUSI strategy, but due to the delays in the implementation of the project, only 170,000 euros were certified, 50% financed by the City Council. and the European Union. Therefore, 85,000 euros would have to be returned, according to the socialists.
The socialists will insist that the City Council be aware of the consequences of the resolution. If they do not comply, they threaten to turn to Europe again to adopt the measures it deems appropriate. The PSOE demands that the original project that the socialist government, allied with Compromís, sent to the European Union to obtain the subsidy be executed and in which the Francoist vestige that was inaugurated with songs of the Falangist anthem was not present. Face to sun on August 13, 1944 with the motto “To those who have fallen for God and for Spain.”
The mayor of Elche, Pablo Ruz, of the PP, has regretted, first of all, calling on the media to “waste time” because he has insisted that “the cross is not going to move.” The City Council wants to consider the matter settled and will not respond to the recommendations received from either the European Commission or the Ombudsman, who has once again recommended the removal of the cross in a new report. Regarding the fact that they had to return the European subsidy, Ruz has indicated that they would assume it with their own funds. He remembers that they have legal and patrimonial reports from municipal technicians that would support his decision.
The Ombudsman has just released a second resolution on the cross. At the beginning of January, Ángel Gabilondo already issued a first report in which he demanded the removal of this monument “for being an element contrary to democratic memory.” A ruling that the City Council downplayed by considering that it was a “partial” decision due to the socialist past of the current Ombudsman. Now, in this new resolution, he makes several considerations to the government team. It highlights that the reports of the municipal technicians of a patrimonial and legal nature in which the mayor supports his decision were issued after the adoption of the agreement to modify the contract, that is, a posteriori, in order to avoid the transfer of the monument to the fallen
The Ombudsman also argues that, if this government team considered that there was a change in criteria regarding the report that the PSOE and Compromís sent to the Generalitat Valenciana in 2021 in which the removal of the cross as a vestige of Francoism was requested, “He should have sent his opinion to the corresponding regional commission before modifying the contract to remodel the plaza, which he did not do.”
Regarding the excuse that the mayor wants to defend the monument as a “symbol of concord”, the Ombudsman qualifies this definition as a “misleading” term for now changing the original meaning of this element erected by those who died in Spain. And he makes it clear that “the architectural elements themselves can have meaning by themselves, without the need to demonstrate it with a plaque, especially when since their construction a meaning different from the one it has had since 1944 has not been consolidated in the population.
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And finally, the Ombudsman maintains that “the fact that during the democratic stage no mayor has removed the monument is “irrelevant” since there was no obligation to do so until the entry into force of the Democratic Memory law. The Ombudsman indicates that he does not accept the City Council's suggestion and that he will include this matter in the annual report to the Cortes Generales, ending the proceedings.
The councilor of the PSOE of Elche Patricia Maciá has demanded that the law be complied with because “there is no provision that empowers a mayor to stop applying motu proprio a valid law, whether you like it or not.”
The mayor, for his part, has harshly criticized the socialists, whom he considers “a loss in the shoes of all Elche residents” for denouncing them before different institutions. He has asked the PSOE to reconsider their attitude and to work to justify the eight salaries attributed.
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