Martín Villa renounces the Barcelona Gold Medal after the sentence that annulled his withdrawal

The former Minister of Trade Union Relations and the Interior (Interior) in the first governments after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, Rodolfo Martín Villa, has decided to renounce the Barcelona Gold Medal after the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia annulled the agreement of the City Council of the Catalan capital that in 2017 withdrew that distinction.

Sources close to the 87-year-old ex-politician from León affirm that in the next few days he will return the award to the Consistory, which was granted to him in 1976 after ceasing as civil governor of Barcelona.

Last Thursday, the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia annulled the resolution of the Barcelona council that on March 31, 2017 withdrew that honor from Martín Villa. That political decision had the favorable votes of the comuns, Junts, ERC, PSC and the CUP. Ciudadanos abstained and the PP, a party in which the former minister is still active, voted against. To remove the Gold Medal, the City Council argued that it was given to him days after "the Francoist police gassed a group of protesters locked up in a church in Vitoria, when (Martín Villa) was Minister of Trade Union Relations of the Francoist Government of Arias Navarro.

For justice, the decision to strip Martín Villa of the distinction that the then pre-democratic mayor, Joaquín Viola, awarded him in 1976, was based on a "new value judgment" about facts that were already known when it was delivered, such as was the death of five workers in a church in Vitoria by the action of the Armed Police during a strike on March 3, 1976.

More information

Justice allows Martín Villa to recover the Barcelona medal that Ada Colau withdrew from him

Martín Villa has been prosecuted for seven years by the Argentine judge María Servini for crimes against humanity for these and other police killings that occurred during his mandates, such as those of the 1978 Sanfermines. Last December, the Argentine justice revoked his prosecution, considering that Judge Servini has not been able to find rational evidence that incriminates him as part of a "systematic and deliberate plan" to terrorize and eliminate supporters of democracy, as stated in the complaint filed in Buenos Aires against him and other colleagues, since deceased, such as former President Adolfo Suárez or former Minister Alfonso Osorio.

The report of the government team of Ada Colau, which gave the basis for the withdrawal of the medal, concluded in March 2017 that the political action of Martín Villa took place "within the fascist structures of the regime, of the Spanish Falange, of the Juntas de Offensiva Nacional-Sindicalista (JONS) and the sole party of the dictatorship, the Movement”.

The same document held Martín Villa responsible for the repression of citizens and considered him "politically responsible for the persecution, mistreatment, torture and humiliation that the police of the dictatorship practiced during those years."

A "value judgment"

Martín Villa resorted to the courts to withdraw the decoration, alleging lack of motivation in the file and defenselessness.

The Contentious-Administrative Court 11 of Barcelona initially dismissed the appeal, but Martín Villa appealed to the Superior Court, which has ruled in his favor.

The Catalan high court considered that the withdrawal of the medal was not in accordance with administrative law.

According to the sentence "the Municipal Regulation of 2012 maintained the distinctions granted to all persons and corporate entities under the previous regulation" that of 1950.

The sentence considers that withdrawing a medal is always possible, but when the withdrawal is carried out due to the verification of facts, acts or manifestations that were not known at the time the medal was awarded and if it had been known, the distinction would not have been awarded.

Well, the sentence considers that the plenary session of the City Council withdrew the medal from Martín Villa based on a new "value judgment" which was not contemplated in article 6 of the regulation.

During the "Kafkaesque" process, according to his own words, to which he has been subjected in Argentina from November 2014 until last December, Martín Villa has renounced to take advantage of the 1977 Amnesty Law and the prescription of possible crimes.

He did it, he has assured during all these years, with a double objective: to defend his personal honor and that of his family, and also to protect the memory of the Spanish democratic transition.

On January 17, at an informative breakfast in Madrid, he stated: “I have felt the personal and moral obligation to respond to the Argentine complaint regarding the lack of truth about the Transition, because it was a consensus process of national harmony to end the most uncivil of our civil wars”.