WASHINGTON, March 18 (UPI) -- In the 30 years since Francisco Franco's death his statue has stood unmolested -- and largely ignored -- in Madrid's Plaza San Juan de la Cruz. Few younger generation Spaniards could actually identify the equestrian bronze figure as the country's durable Fascist dictator (1939-1975).
But on Thursday, Spanish television news was awash with images of a large crane removed the statue from its plinth at 2 a.m., guarded by police and watched by a small crowd, the latter with arms extended upwards in the Fascist salute. The statue, sheathed in a white dust cloth, was then driven off to a government warehouse for storage.
The removal of Madrid's last remaining public monument to El Caudillo (military strongman) -- as he was called -- came as a surprise. Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon complained that the decision had been taken by the Socialist government, and the city administration had not been advised in advance. Workmen from the Ministry of Public Works arrived late at night, passed slings under the bronze horse's belly and lifted the 22-foot high statue, and trucked it away.
A ministry spokesman said Franco's statue, which was been unveiled in 1959, was removed because "it was not liked by the majority of citizens." However, a poll published Thursday by the Spanish newspaper ABC, which is not generally friendly to the government, showed that 31 percent approved of its removal but 68 percent did not.
According to reports, the statue has been a target for removal since the socialists won the election and took over the government exactly a year ago. "It is unthinkable that in Germany they would have statues to the Nazis," said Emilio Silva, head of the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, an independent group that uncovers Civil War mass graves. Other supporters of the late night operation pointed out that statues of Mussolini have also been removed from post-war Italy.
But the counter-argument put forward by Spaniards who favored preserving the statue was that while Fascism in Nazi Germany and Italy had been defeated in World War II, Franco's regime had stayed out of the world conflict and had lasted 36 years. This was the reasoning of former Socialist Prime Minister Felipe Gonzales in the 1980s in response to similar calls to take away the statue. Gonzales' recorded reply was, "It seems to me stupid to want to remove statues; I always thought that those who believed Franco should be unhorsed should have done it while he was alive."
The removal of Franco's statue comes at a time when Spaniards are beginning to shed their earlier inhibitions about putting the Civil War under critical scrutiny. Several books have recently been published examining the conflict from either the Republican of the Fascist perspective -- although it is generally agreed that the definitive account is still by the English historian, Hugh Thomas. However, the years under Franco are still too close to home for a comprehensive history to be written.
As a young, obscure general Franco started the Civil War in 1936 by challenging the Republican government. Estimates vary, but in it, at least 365,000 died from violence or starvation
Judging from the editorials Friday the old divisions have not totally disappeared. On the one hand, ABC complained, "All of us, whatever our dominant (political) color, are children of our history. Children of Franco and the Second Republic. Someone should now explain if we have not all lost our common sense, the reasons for a removal that's a symptom of some sickness."
On the other hand, El Pais, which supports the present government, said, "Franco is without doubt a historical figure, like Mussolini, for example, or Stalin, but it's unimaginable to see in a democratic country a statue that remembers and glorifies him."
However, El Pais also pointed out, "Franco was a general who attempted a coup that provoked a cruel civil war and, having won, established a dictatorship of extraordinary cruelty." The dictator, the paper said, "executed no less than 50,000 Spaniards, and caused hundreds of thousands to flee to exile or to suffer imprisonment."
A senior Madrid analyst called removing the statue a gesture by Prime Minister Jose-Luis Rodriguez Zapatero "to remind people of his left-wing credentials." It was, the analyst said, "a demagogic gesture that will be very popular with his supporters."
Besides, there had always been something incongruous about the monument. During his lifetime, nobody had ever seen Franco on a horse.
