The Ayuntamiento of Alberche del Caudillo (1,717 inhabitants, Toledo) has kept the process paralyzed since 2023 to initiate a name change and separate itself from its Franco geographic name even though the 2022 Democratic Memory Law urges its removal. Aleperche, a smaller entity in Calera y Chosas, is one of 14 pueblos on which the National Colonization Institute, which encouraged repopulation in agricultural areas, imposed references to Franco in its naming through a 1958 decree. Today, six pueblos still retain their Franco toponyms after Malagueña Pedanía de Villafranco del Guadalhorce agreed last month of August to do away with that reference. In addition to Alberche himself, who still goes to Llanos del Caudillo (Ciudad Real), Villafranco del Guadiana (Badajoz), Alcocero de Mola (Burgos), Quintanilla de Onesimo (Valladolid) and San Leonardo de Yagüe (Soria).
The Alberche del Caudillo district initiated the action in February 2023 through a resolution signed by the local mayor, Ana Isabel Reveles (PP), but shortly afterwards was paralyzed by support in a legal report commissioned by the Ayuntamiento de Calera y Chozas that validated past non-compliance. There is still an official catalog of Franco’s remains. The mayor of Calera y Chozas, Gregorio Lopez, highlights the absence of this list to justify stopping the measure. “We are now on the verge of complying with the law, but it has not yet been developed…” he says in statements to Sir Toledo, the popular governor who confirmed that he will reopen the process as soon as the list is published. “When the catalog is published, an attempt will be made to comply with the law as a whole,” he says. “Se hará”, he needs to follow the ringlon. El Ejecutivo de Pedro Sánchez wants to list this catalog before the end of the year.
The text signed by the mayor of Albereche calls for an “immediate redefinition of the name” to adopt “measures to restore legitimacy” based on a request sent by Eduardo Ranz, a lawyer expert in democratic memory, who also criticizes the executive authority of Sánchez for failing to comply with its own standards and not punishing these failures, which is the only administration that, remember, can achieve approval of the Democratic Memory Law of 2022. That it can only issue instructions to files and, thus, judicialize the State Secretariat of Democratic Memory, but we do not understand Why don’t you authorize or freeze subsidies,” because it empowers the law. The learned also addressed the Pueblo defender “so that he acts” after the process was paralyzed, but today, Senyala, “everything remains as it is.” He adds: “In the Ayuntamiento de Alberche, the price for this non-compliance is paid for free.”
Last week, the Council of Ministers approved the decree to prepare a catalog of Franco symbols and objects in public places. Its preparation, explained by the Minister of Regional Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, will correspond to a technical committee and will be periodically updated with the proposals put forward. It remains to be seen whether the document will include municipalities that still retain references to the dictatorship in their names. But this requirement, in which the Ayuntamiento de Alberche del Caudillo is supported, is not necessary, as Ranz explains to EL PAÍS, so that this council adheres to its text. group Franco does not act in office. “It is a bit of a strict interpretation of the rule because the law has a specific article dedicated to these geographical names, and it is just up to me to wait for the catalog if the category raises doubt or confusion, but that is not the case,” the learner said.
Consultation by Llanos del Caudillo
In a similar situation to Alberche lies Llanos del Cuadillo (657 inhabitants, Ciudad Real), the other town in Castilla-La Mancha that retains its Francoist “title”. In 2018, a ruling was issued that “Ayuntamiento” would not have to change its name and would not recognize the Law of Historical Memory, which was in force at that moment, an explicit reference to the geographical names that indicated Francoism. After a request from Ranz, no response was obtained to another request. 14 years ago, in 2004, with the Socialist Workers Party in the municipal government, the Llanos del Caudillo Association held a popular consultation to ask the neighbours. Of the 400 votes cast, only 50 requested a name change. “We face difficulties in getting our forgotten people back, but we also suffer humiliation when we see that the streets, squares and roads are reserved for those who ordered the killing of our families,” the lawyer laments.