José Manuel Albares’ promise to remove Francoist symbols has been blocked after a court ordered the re-hanging of the portrait of General Francisco Gómez-Jordana y Sousa.
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will appeal the order of a judge of hang again in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a portrait of the Franco general Francisco Gómez-Jordana y Sousa.
The judicial decision represents a challenge to the controversial Democratic Memory Law of 2022promoted by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, which gives legal support to a series of anti-Franco initiativesamong them the removal of Francoist symbols.
The opposition to the removal of the portrait was presented by the lawyer of the general’s grandson, Íñigo Gómez-Jordana. The court ruled in his favor by determining that the proper procedure before removing the artwork from the Diplomatic School that Sousa founded.
The ruling stated that the Ministry “had not initiated a minimum procedure to verify the data, nor had it given the interested party any opportunity to present evidence,” and added that it was “a substantial defect that violates the basic rules of administrative procedure”.
Upon taking office in July 2021, Albares promised to eliminate all vestiges of Francisco Franco of his Ministry and diplomatic missions. The socialist minister has supervised the dismantling of more than a thousand objectsincluding shields, portraits, tableware and a mural.
In defending the decision to remove the artwork, the Ministry said that the portrait broke the new lawwhich establishes that “the portraits of soldiers and ministers related to the military uprising or the repressive system of the dictatorship“, so “they may not be displayed in representative places and, in particular, in offices or other rooms of senior officials, areas of common use or public access.”
He has removed the portraits of three Francoist Foreign Ministers: Juan Beigbeder Atienza, Ramon Serrano Suñerbrother-in-law of Franco, and José Félix de Lequerica. Critics of Albares have suggested that he is overzealous in his Francoist purge. A jurist explained to ‘El Confidencial’ that Albares walked around the diplomatic school and the Ministry pointing out paintings and giving the order to remove them to the basement.
