The Supreme Court endorses removing the crosses that include the deceased from only one side of the Civil War in application of the Memory Law

2023-12-19 20:32:52

MANUEL MARRACO

Madrid

Updated Tuesday, December 19, 2023 – 19:32

It ratifies the elimination of located in front of the Callosa de Segura church “it is not incompatible with religious freedom nor does it imply denying or ignoring anyone’s beliefs”

Removal of the Callosa de Segura cross (Alicante) in 2018.EFE

The Supreme Court has established that a cross containing a list of deaths from only one side of the Civil War “supposes exaltation of the military uprising, the Civil War and the repression of the Dictatorship.” Therefore, it is contrary to the Law of Historical Memory. With this argument, the sentence supports the removal of a cross in front of the church of Callosa del Segura (Alicante).

The sentence of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber rejects the appeal by the Citizen Platform in defense of the Cross against a 2017 City Council agreement that rejected a proposal from the PP spokesperson to preserve the monument.

The High Court agrees with the previous decisions of a court in Elche and the Valencian Superior Court of Justice. “We are faced with a religious symbol – cross – that contains elements that prevent it from recognizing a neutral value as a mere artistic or artistic-religious symbol. On the contrary, its presence in a public space allows us to appreciate an act of exaltation insofar as it contributes to enhancing the merit of that civil conflict with the inclusion of the list of deaths from only one side, which, implicitly, also entails the disapproval of the opposing side in social perception,” the magistrates state.

The ruling indicates that the case studied differs from those resolved in Galicia and Navarra referring to a cross and a monolith, which the appellants had argued. In those two cases, all the elements of exaltation of the Civil War and the dictatorship had been eliminated, so the contradiction does not exist. Nor can the case be compared to the one that the Supreme Court addressed in 2014, where what was in question was whether the persistence of such a religious symbol compromised the nondenominational nature of the State and its neutrality, which was denied by the high court.

In the new resolution, the Supreme Court follows what was held in the sentences on the exhumation of the remains of Francisco Franco, maintaining that with the one relating to the Callosa de Segura Cross “the aim is nothing more than to remove from the foreground whatever it means, represents or “symbolizes civil confrontation. That purpose is not incompatible with religious freedom nor does it imply denying or ignoring anyone’s beliefs.”

The Supreme Court considers essential the fact that on the plinth of the cross – the base – a list of deceased people had been maintained “which prevents it from being considered neutral”, despite having removed a plaque referring to José Antonio Primo de Rivera and Falangist heroes.