Vox calls removal of cross at Arrecife square “an attack on Christianity”

Members of the Vox party have called the removal of a cross in Arrecife’s Plaza de las Palmas “an attack on Christianity”.

The entire Manrique-designed square is currently being renovated and, in order to comply with the Law Of Historical Memory, which requires the removal of Franco-era monuments, the cross has been taken away.

Immediately after Manrique-designed square was completed in 1950, the cross was erected by the Falange, the only political party permitted under Franco’s dictatorship, in tribute to around 50 islanders who died fighting for the fascist side in the Civil War. It was one of hundreds of “monuments to the fallen” erected by the victorious

Vox councillors have avoided any mention of the link to Franco, calling the cross “part of our identity and our culture.”

Eugenio Hernández, a Vox councillor on Arrecife’s Ayuntamiento,  complained “Not only do we have an invasion of all kinds of linguistic terms from countries like England, but the massive arrival of people from other countries of various continents is causing disruption and insecurity in different areas of the capital…Now we have to put up with them taking away something that is ours, that is part of our identity and our culture.” 

Supporters of the removal of the cross have called it a “clearly political monument that glorifies the military coup against democracy.”