The Supreme Court has endorsed the withdrawal of the medals for Merit at Work from the dictator Francisco Franco, of which he was stripped in July of last year in application of article 42 of the Democratic Memory Law, which allows the awards and decorations to be reviewed. who had been part of the repressive apparatus of the old regime.
The court, in a ruling now known, considers it evident that “the distinguished citizen,” who awarded himself the Laureate Gold Medal for Merit and Sacrifice at Work in 1953, “participated in the military insurrection of 1936, in the Civil War. and in the dictatorial regime subsequently established: the obvious does not need any demonstration.”
Despite ratifying the Government's decision to remove the distinction, the Supreme Court also scolds the Executive for having approved the revocation on the eve of the last general elections.
The revocation process was initiated by the Ministry of Labor in October, focused on the medals that were awarded to leaders of the military insurrection of 1936. The Medal of Merit in Work comes from the Primo de Rivera dictatorship and in 1942 was reestablished by Francoism.
Franco's file also affected General Juan Yagüe, José Luis Arrese, José Antonio Girón de Velasco, José Solis Ruiz, Cardinal Enrique Pla y Deniel, José María Fernández de Ladreda, Jesús Romero Gorría, Félix Huarte Goñi and José León Carranza and Gómez Pablos, prominent officials, collaborators and ideologists of Franco's repression.
In the case of the head of State, furthermore, the award was created specifically and with an extraordinary nature for Franco: it was the Laureate Gold Medal for Merit and Sacrifice at Work, awarded on July 18, 1953.
The withdrawal, which was finalized in the Council of Ministers on July 11 (the decree came out in the BOE on July 18, 70 years after the concession), was appealed by the Asociación Revindicativa de la Memoria Historico Raíces.
The Supreme Court, in its first rejection argument, states that this entity lacks “legitimate interest” to appeal and adds that its allegations were “doomed to failure” and “none would have been able to prosper.”
Democratic memory does not admit shadow zones, nor does justice and reparation for the victims of the dictatorship.
Today, with the withdrawal of Franco's medals, we comply with the law and contribute, above all, to the desire to dignify the institutions of our country.
pic.twitter.com/iaeBZ5M7nw
— Yolanda Díaz (@Yolanda_Diaz_) July 11, 2023
But, in addition, the high court affirms that article 42 of the Democratic Memory Law was “undoubtedly applicable to the present case,” and, the magistrates add, “of course, it would not have been necessary to prove in the administrative file that the
distinguished citizen
[as he is called there] participated in the military insurrection of 1936, in the Civil War and in the dictatorial regime subsequently established: the obvious does not need any demonstration.”
The court takes the opportunity to review the current Government, since, although it rejects Raíces' argument that the revocation was approved by “a government in office”, it affirms that perhaps the date chosen by Yolanda Díaz to approve the measure was not the better.
“And at the time the contested administrative act was approved, the Chambers were dissolved and the general elections were called for a few days later [July 23];
but this does not mean, obviously, that it was a government in office.
A different issue, on which this Chamber has nothing to say, is the opportunity to adopt a measure of this nature five days before an election day,” the ruling indicates.