The TSJCV rules that Francoist crosses “resignified” or without text do not violate the Law of Historical Memory

The Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) has partially upheld an appeal from the Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers and has considered that the “resignified” crosses or without text do not violate the Historical Memory Law .

In a ruling issued on December 5, the Valencian high court expressly refers to five crosses: the one on Doctor Gadea avenue with Maisonnave de Alicante (to those who fell in defense of their ideals), the Cruz de las Germanías de Elche ( Alicante), that of the Ribalta Park in Castellón, that of the town square of Herbés (Castellón) and that of the port of Querol in Morella (Castellón), all of them without any text.

Christian Lawyers appealed a resolution of the Councilor for Democratic Quality of December 9, 2022 that included the agreement of the technical commission to update the catalog of vestiges of the Civil War and the dictatorship and the list of elements contrary to democratic memory that They were to be removed or eliminated.

This association justified its judicial action with a double interest: patrimonial and Christian, and demanded the annulment of the aforementioned catalogue, so that it could be previously clarified whether the crosses or other vestiges had been resignified or not.

The Attorney General’s Office, in addition to questioning the legitimization of this association of lawyers, stated that the aforementioned catalog does not imply the removal of any monument, but that this action depends on each owner of the property in question. “The simple cataloging as elements contrary to democratic memory and the dignity of the victims does not imply the existence of damage to Spanish historical heritage,” he added.

The TSJCV emphasizes in its resolution that none of the elements indicated in the catalog prepared by the Valencian Government were included in the cultural heritage, although it understands that its inclusion in the list “constitutes a declarative act with its qualification that it is contrary to the memory democracy and dignity.”

Also remember that the regional law that established this regulation, 14/2017, is currently repealed.

Although the aforementioned catalog included various goods, the ruling of the TSJCV refers only to crosses “to the extent that the Association of Christian Lawyers lacks ‘ad causam’ legitimation to combat the inclusion of monuments / elements other than crosses or other Christian religious significance.

Consequently, the Valencian high court considers that the thesis of Abogados Cristianos has a legal basis, although with nuances, since “not every alteration of the characteristics of a publicly displayed monument deserves to be classified strictly as a resignification that implies the reduction in the catalog of vestiges.”

The Chamber understands that with the resignification “the connotation that it may have had in its origins disappears” relative to the “individual or collective commemoration, exaltation or exaltation of the military uprising of 1936 and of the Franco regime, of its leaders or of the organizations that supported to the dictatorial regime” and expressly cite the five crosses set out above.

Following this pronouncement, the Christian Lawyers have announced that they will request the review of all the sentences that have supported the demolition of crosses in the Valencian Community, such as that of Callosa de Segura (Alicante).

In a statement, its president, Poland Castellanos, assures that this sentence is “a boost to our defense of crosses in Spain. “We are not going to allow even one more demolition and we will initiate procedures to return all the crosses demolished so far to their locations.”

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