The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, has compared this Thursday the former president of the Generalitat Lluís Companys with the coup leader general José Millán-Astray.
He has done so in response to criticism of the tribute he paid to the Francoist military officer in an act stating that he is "the victim of an episode of the cancellation culture of the left". The mayor of Madrid has reproached him for being criticized for mentioning Millán-Astray, but instead, he can "vindicate Lluís Companys, convicted of leading a coup in 1934", in reference to the events of October 6 when the former president proclaimed the Catalan State in the Spanish Federal Republic. "Every year he is given a tribute," he stressed.
In statements to the media at the Palacio de Cibeles, the mayor defended himself against the criticism received and the Government's intention to investigate his words about the Francoist general in case they constituted a violation of the Democratic Memory Law. This investigation is, for Almeida, “one more proof that this Government is not out to solve the problems of the Spanish people, but to do stupid things and uselessly spend the Spanish people's money.
The mayor regretted that the Executive "wasted time" in investigating some words in which "I limited myself to saying that there is a street in Madrid that bears the name of Millán-Astray". And the most worrying thing, according to what he said, "is the culture of cancellation that the left intends to establish, which pretends that a street endorsed by legality cannot even be mentioned."
On the other hand, Almeida criticized that "postage stamps can be issued with the Communist Party, you can negotiate with Arnaldo Otegi, a confessed terrorist, convicted and sentenced, or you can vindicate Lluís Companys, who was convicted of carrying out a coup in 1934 and every year a tribute is paid to Francisco Largo Caballero”.
In this sense, he added that “it even reaches the ridiculous and grotesque extreme of opening an investigation because a mayor mentions that there is a street in Madrid that bears a certain name as a consequence of having founded La Legión and that its legality was endorsed by the Court. Superior of Justice”.
For this reason, the councilor commented that it is "frankly worrying" for freedom of expression and a "threat" for freedom of expression that the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory "intends to investigate and intends to waste resources and money from all Spaniards." “That seems to me to threaten freedom of expression in Spain right now,” he asserted.
Almeida stressed that his priority as mayor is not to change the name of the streets, because "I abide by the Democratic Memory Law," he assured, although "I find the law agreed with Bildu unworthy."
The mayor differentiated between abiding by the laws and "that one cannot disagree with a deeply sectarian, unjust law, and that the only thing it seeks is the confrontation between Spaniards."
The Madrid councilor stressed that "we have infinitely more serious problems" that he has to face as mayor than dedicating himself to applying "indiscriminately" a law "so sectarian" as the Democratic Memory Law that "is agreed with those who do not condemn the 'ongi etorri' in the Basque Country have not even condemned the ETA murders”.
