The Mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez, has instructed municipal legal services to file a contentious administrative complaint against the state, aiming to prevent the removal of the city’s last significant relic from Franco’s regime, the monument to Franco on Avenida de Anaga.
This move follows the rejection of an appeal against a resolution from the General Directorate for the Promotion of Democratic Memory, which classified the Franco monument as a symbol contrary to democratic values. The resolution, issued on June 29, 2026, mandated its demolition within six months after it was removed from the list of Cultural Heritage Assets.
Notably, the Canary Islands government determined the monument holds no cultural value and, in line with the Law of Democratic Memory, it must be removed. The Mayor has resisted these efforts for years.
According to a resolution accessed by Europa Press, municipal regulations authorize the Culture and Heritage departments, along with legal advisors, to proceed with the complaint.
The Santa Cruz council argues that the order to remove the monument should be suspended while it undergoes evaluation for inclusion in the municipal heritage catalogue being processed by the Urban Planning Department.
Under Bermúdez’s leadership, the city has delayed compliance with the law for over a decade, commissioning various studies and resorting to the courts in a bid to protect the statue. The council reportedly spent over €56,000 on a catalogue of Francoist relics to identify the exact streets to rename, despite the government’s catalogue already specifying this.
In 2018, Bermúdez ordered more reports to find any potential “artistic values” of the monument, consulting experts from the University of La Laguna, the Canarian Academy of Fine Arts, and the International Centre for Conservation of Heritage. Two reports denied artistic value outright, while the third acknowledged it but notably did not explain the reasons for the statue’s erection or its significance.
