The far-right formation Vox has described the removal of a Francoist cross from the Plaza de Las Palmas, located in front of the church of San Ginés, in Arrecife, as an "attack on Christianity". This Francoist vestige has been removed taking advantage of the rehabilitation of this historic square in the capital of Lanzarote and complying with the Historical Memory Law.
The two Vox councilors in the Arrecife City Council Eugenio Hernández and Jorge Enrique Barrios have stated that the removal of this Francoist vestige is "a terrible attack" against the "cultural tradition" of the island and that "it would be illogical and absurd to remove it, whether the reasons are political or simple oversight."
The former general director of Cultural Heritage of the Government of the Canary Islands, Nona Perera, one of the promoters of the catalogs of Francoist vestiges in the archipelago, explained to La Voz that when the central door of the Church of San Ginés was opened there was a cross painted on the door. However, in 1957 the Spanish Falange, the only legal political party in the Franco regime, commissioned the cross that could be seen until now in the square to commemorate the fifty or so people on the Francoist side who died in the civil war on the island.
On the one hand, the City Council hired Manrique to design this square and, on the other, the Falange placed that cross. "It is already significant, it is a symbol of the people who died on one side, although sometimes that is camouflaged," added Nona Perera.
Likewise, the political formation has continued to defend that this monument "belongs to the history of the municipality, not to anyone in particular", ignoring that this monument was erected as a cult to the coup plotters of the Francoist side who supported the military uprising against the Government of the Second Republic in 1936, giving rise to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and forty years of military dictatorship in the country.
The far-right party has already asked the municipal government, composed of the Popular Party and the Canarian Coalition, to "respect a symbol of marked Catholic and Christian character" that "guards and safeguards the entrance to the temple."
"Who is bothered by a Christian cross, are these people who live permanently in the past going to come now and tell us that it was a cross of General Franco and not of the people of Arrecife of any type of ideology?", continued Eugenio Hernández.
In this line, the far-right formation has indicated that "not only do we have an invasion of all kinds of linguistic terms from countries like England, but the massive arrival of people from other countries of diverse continents is causing disruptions and insecurity in different areas of the capital." "Now we have to put up with them taking away something that is ours, that is part of our identity and our culture, regardless of whether the people who defend it are believers or not," continued Hernández.
"Unfortunately for them, it is not a monument created to exalt anything other than faith in Jesus Christ and enhance the beauty of a square in which its main ornamental element is precisely a simple but beautiful church," added Enrique Barrios, omitting the relationship of this cross with the Franco dictatorship.
"Removing that cross from the Church square, no matter how much some revisionists want to link it to Franco, is a historical and irreparable error that will certainly fall on the shoulders of the highest municipal official, Yonathan de León, who must ensure respect for the symbols and traditions that his neighbors defend in a majority way," concluded Barrios.
