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Madrid strips late dictator Franco of honorary titles
Jun 29, 2009, 11:52 GMT
Madrid - The city of Madrid, Spain's capital, on Monday decided to strip the late dictator Francisco Franco of all the honorary titles that the city had granted him during his 1939-75 rule.
The city council decided unanimously to cancel the titles of honorary mayor and favourite son, as well as the gold and honorary medals given to Franco.
Madrid 'has today progressed in freedom and in the defence of democracy,' said Milagros Hernandez of the far-left party Izquierda Unida (IU), which took the initiative to eliminate the tributes to Franco.
The opposition conservatives, who generally oppose reopening a discussion about the Franco era, backed the proposal. Two conservative councillors nevertheless left the room during the vote.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's socialist government passed in 2007 a Law of Historic Memory, which requests the abolition of tributes to the dictatorship.
Statues of Franco have been removed from nearly everywhere, but other tributes such as street names still remain in many places.
Madrid followed the example of 14 other municipalities in cancelling honours granted to Franco.
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