The change in the PP’s voting direction has allowed the approval this Monday in Elche of a motion in favor of the annulment of the Franco summaries that condemned the poet Miguel Hernández after the Civil War. This motion is similar to the one that was rejected last Thursday by the PP in Orihuela, the poet’s hometown. The town council of Elche, the city where Hernández’s widow, Josefina Manresa, settled and where her relatives still live, does, therefore, adhere to the request made to the Government for recognition and reparation of the figure of Miguel Hernández, since the proposal, presented by the municipal group of Compromís, has obtained 13 votes in favor (PSOE and Compromís) and 11 abstentions, all from the popular bench, including the mayor, Pablo Ruz. There have only been three votes against: those of Vox. This party presented an amendment – rejected – in which it attacked “all unjust judicial processes” and cited three: that of Hernández, who died in 1942; that of the founder of the Falange, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, prosecuted and shot in 1936 by the Republicans; and that of “Federico García Lorca”, who was never tried.
The replacement amendment from the far-right party reads: “Urge the Government of Spain to annul all unjust judicial proceedings that were initiated against civilians in the Civil War and afterwards, such as the case of Miguel Hernández, Federico García Lorca and José Antonio Primo de Rivera among others, seeking reparation for all victims.” García Lorca was shot on August 18, 1936, the most commonly accepted date, after being arrested by the Civil Guard in Granada. There is no evidence that he was the subject of any judicial procedure or summary trial.
“That [el juicio a Lorca] It would be the discovery of the year, without a doubt. Let them provide the proof,” comments Gutmaro Gómez Bravo, historian at the Complutense University of Madrid and expert on the Civil War, ironically. The scholar maintains that there is a broad historiographic consensus that around 90% of the victims of the Spanish Civil War occurred during the first six months, without any judicial process involved. The historian considers that this type of comparison, like the one sought by Vox, seeks to “confuse everything.”
Before the plenary session, it could already be taken for granted that Vox, whose three councilors led the PP to the mayor’s office in the last municipal elections, would vote against the motion. In her interventions, ultra councilor Aurora Rodil has said that her party seeks “reparation for all victims” and has tried to defend Miguel Hernández by eliminating any trace of his ideology, only for the value of his work. “If they had brought a tribute to Hernández without the Marxist rhetoric in defense of the Republic,” he said, “we would have voted for it.” [a favor]”. Miguel Hernández, sentenced in 1940 to the death penalty—later commuted to 30 years in prison—fell ill and died in Alicante prison in 1942, at the age of 31.
The Compromís councilor, Esther Díez, has rejected the Vox amendment stating that it is not acceptable “to equate Miguel Hernández and Federico García Lorca with a fascist like José Antonio [Primo de Rivera]”. Díez, promoter of the motion, recalled the deep mark that Miguel Hernández left in Elche. “He gives his name to our university and the airport,” he recalled, “in addition to the fact that in Elche he won his first literary prize and that his widow, Josefina Manresa, his son, his daughter-in-law and his grandchildren settled here.”
The motion presented requires the “express and singular pronouncement that the sentences [contra Hernández] They have no legal value and that the process was carried out without guarantees,” the councilor emphasizes. The agreement approved today in plenary will lead the City Council to “join the request of Miguel Hernández’s family to [pedir] that the Government of Spain annul the two judicial proceedings opened against it by the Franco Dictatorship”, in addition to demanding a declaration of Recognition and Reparation “in an institutional act at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH)” and to transfer of all this to the Presidency of the Government, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Culture and the parliamentary groups of the Congress and the Senate.
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THE PSOE has supported the Compromís initiative. Its councilor Mariano Valera has stressed that the motion is based on a petition signed by the poet’s family. And, like Díez, he has focused his speech on directly questioning the mayor, Pablo Ruz, of the PP, whom he has reminded that it was he who, as Councilor for Culture in a previous legislature, allowed the legacy of the Oriolano poet to leave Elche towards Quesada (Jaén), hometown of his widow, Josefina Manresa. “Are we clear that justice must be done with our poet from Elche born in Orihuela?” Valera asked him. Díez, for his part, has indicated that the motion “expressly condemns Francoism.” “And by not doing so, you are capable of giving every excuse to say that the City Council is not the place to support Miguel Hernández’s family,” he snapped at the mayor.
That was the argument that Ruz had given during his speech. He also repeated on several occasions that his party “is that of Adolfo Suárez.” He has repeated it so much that Valera has even asked him what Manuel Fraga’s role was in those years. “I am with the harmony, with that of Suárez,” Ruz insisted. “This party condemns any murder of any Spaniard from 1931 to 1939 and beyond,” he stated. Anchored in the defense of “equality for all victims”, the PP has finally abstained from the vote, contrary to what happened in Orihuela, where the same party voted against a similar motion. In this way, the Compromís proposal has gone forward.
The motion is added to the petition promoted by the Hernandian researcher and expert Joan Pàmies and supported by the poet’s family, which urged the Government to annul the summaries that sentenced the author of The lightning that does not stop. According to this proposal, the two judicial summaries, 21001 and 4407, “lacked any legal rigor, without allowing the poet to defend himself against accusations fabricated for ideological reasons.” The Government, through the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, has already agreed to hold an act of Recognition and Reparation of the figure of Miguel Hernández on October 31.
On the other hand, the PSPV-PSOE announced this Monday that it will bring an institutional declaration to the Valencian Courts to recognize the nullity of the summary trials of Miguel Hernández. He will also ask for “recognition and personal reparation” in favor of the poet and his family in order to “ensure that his memory is redeemed from the false and unjust accusations that persecuted him until his death.”
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