PSOE and United We can propose to eliminate 33 titles of nobility granted during the Franco regime
PSOE and United We Can go one step further to eliminate the loopholes of the Franco regime in the democratic memory law. The groups that make up the coalition government propose the direct suppression through that rule of 33 noble titles that were granted between 1948 and 1978 and that are still alive today. Socialists and a confederal group have registered an amendment in which they list the duchies, marquisates or counties that extol the coup, the dictatorship or its instigators or participants, among them the duchy of Franco or that of Primo de Rivera.
Some thirty heirs of Franco supporters the titles of nobility granted by the dictator
Know more
The initial drafting of the Democratic Memory law approved by the Council of Ministers at the request of the department of Félix Bolaños - inherited to a large extent from Carmen Calvo - advocated leaving the preparation of a catalog of those titles in the hands of the Government and, from there, proceed to their suppression.
With the amendment, PSOE and Unidas Podemos intend to reduce and speed up the procedures, in addition to providing a greater legal basis for the decision. “With the research work already carried out, it is possible to determine at this time the titles of nobility and greatness of Spain that incur because of suppression for exalting the coup, the war and the dictatorship, and their instigators, leaders or participants of the repressive system or of the organizations that supported the dictatorial regime, which allows to include an express reference to them in this article and to establish their suppression directly, thus being the legislator himself, the depositary of popular sovereignty, who expels from the set of noble titles Those currently existing are those whose basis is constituted by a series of behaviors that violate human dignity and other fundamental rights committed in pre-constitutional times, ”the groups state in the amendment to which elDiario.es has had access.
Among the noble titles that PSOE and United We can propose to eliminate there is the duchy of Franco that in 1975 King Juan Carlos granted to the dictator's wife. Although the Government of Pedro Sánchez studied ways to avoid That Francisco Franco's granddaughter, Carmen Martínez Bordiú, inherited the duchy, he found none. Hence, it is necessary to modify the legislation. The appointment, which was signed by the former Minister of Justice Rafael Catalá on the same day as the motion of censure, was published in the BOE on July 4, 2018. The same happened in the case of the Duchy of Primo de Rivera, another of which will be deleted. In this case, it was the former socialist minister Juan Carlos Campo who signed the succession in July 2020.
The Marquis of Arias Navarro will also be put to an end, with which the leader who joined the coup party and acted as a prosecutor promoting the murder of hundreds of Republicans was awarded. During the Franco regime he held different positions of responsibility, including that of Minister of the Interior and was appointed President of the Government - the last of the dictatorship and the first of the monarchy. The same will happen with the Duchy of Carrero Blanco, granted to his predecessor in the presidency.
The titles granted to the main military personnel who participated in the uprising, such as Queipo de Llano or General Mola, and also to collaborators of the regime, such as Castillo de la Mota County, issued in gratitude to Pilar Primo de Rivera, president of the Women's Section, for having opted for "the traditional virtues of Spanish women", as explained in the concession decree. (You can consult here the complete list of titles that PSOE and United We Can want to suppress).
The deadline for the presentation of partial amendments to the democratic memory law ends this Wednesday at noon without the Government having secured the support for its approval. The usual parliamentary allies of the Executive have proposed amendments that the Socialists have already rejected, like the removal of the title of king. In addition, the PSOE has always refused to end the amnesty law and now United We Can and the pro-independence forces press for it to be modified.
Until now, the Government saw scope for the agreement with ERC in aspects such as the consideration of the Franco regime as “illegal” compared to the illegitimate concept that the law includes, but they were reluctant to other issues, such as the conversion of the Vía Laietana commissioner in Barcelona in an exclusive place of memory or patrimonial claims - in this case under the argument that the "State has compensated thousands of victims of the Franco regime with more than 21,700 million euros", according to the sources consulted.
The new demands of the independence forces led the Government to explore the possibility of carrying out the law with Citizens. According to the spokesman, Edmundo Bal, he received a call from the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, just a few hours after the amendments were registered on Monday. The Executive's negotiation with the party of Inés Arrimadas has caused discomfort in ERC.
