The Socialist Municipal Group in the Arrecife City Council has denounced "the lack of transparency" of the mayor after the removal of the cross located in the Plaza de Las Palmas, in front of the church of San Ginés. This is a Francoist symbol included in the official catalog of the Government of the Canary Islands that, according to current legislation, had to be removed from public space.
The PSOE spokesperson, Alfredo Mendoza, has lamented that the mayor "has opted for the most absolute silence" in the face of an action known and planned for months: "The removal of the cross was contemplated in the rehabilitation project of the square and the mayor knew it perfectly. However, he has preferred to hide it from the citizens, as he already did with the Puerto Naos gas station. He avoids public debate again and again when it comes to courageous decisions, while entertaining the city with his next festival program.”
Mendoza recalled that this cross, erected in 1950 in honor of the fallen on the Franco side, had no relation to traditional religious symbology: “It was a political symbol, not liturgical. Trying to disguise it as a Christian cross is manipulating the truth and confusing public opinion.”
The PSOE has defended that this withdrawal responds to strict compliance with the State Democratic Memory Law and the Canary Islands Historical Memory Law, which require the removal from public space of any element that exalts the Franco dictatorship or humiliates its victims.
“Memory cannot continue to be hijacked by complicit silences or by those who try to whitewash the symbols of a regime that persecuted freedoms and sowed fear. What divides is not removing a Francoist cross, but maintaining it without explanations or justice,” Alfredo Mendoza continued.
The socialist spokesperson has also criticized the management model of the municipal government: “We live in a city where the mayor acts more as an event promoter than as a representative of a democratic institution. He neither informs, nor listens, nor shows his face. And historical memory is also a local responsibility.”
From the PSOE they have recalled that in December 2024 they already defended in the Plenary a motion to transform the Plaza de Las Palmas into an open space free of elements that refer to an authoritarian past, as part of the comprehensive rehabilitation project.
“Democracy demands courage, not silence. And memory, justice, not complicity with oblivion,” Mendoza concluded.
