The organizers of the demonstration will claim that the monument cannot be kept standing, that it is impossible to express and that in order to give the necessary dignity to the memory of the Francoist victims it is essential to derail it.

According to the callers, “the most anti-francoist message that can be sent to Navarre society on the 50th anniversary of the death of the dictator Francisco Franco is the demolition of the monument.” At the time of convening the demonstration, they recalled that “in Navarre there was no war front and the Carlist, Falangist and Military repression killed more than 3,700 people and more than 30,000 were retaliated in various ways, imprisoned, raped or, among other things, with loose hair”.

In this historical context, Franco built the monument in 1942 to pay tribute to some 4,500 Carlist and Falangist soldiers killed on his side. As for the fact that it was built for this purpose, by its very nature, they believe that no other meaning can be given to the monument. That is why the nineteen memorialist associations that have called for the demonstration, the majority of Navarre, ask the City Council of Pamplona and the Government of Navarre for its dismantling.

Agreement of EH Bildu, PSN and Geroa Bai

The theme of the monument has been underway since Joseba Asiron took over the mayor of Pamplona in 2015. In its first legislature there was no agreement on the monument and now, last November, EH Bildu, the PSN and Geroa Bai announced an agreement for the refoundation of the monument and give it a new meaning.

Depending on this, the dome of the monument will be covered – it does not specify how – the crypts will be removed, the Francoist drawings and slogans and other elements will be removed. Once the objectives and conditions have been set, the project will be put to public tender and the project has not been defined yet, to endorse or reject the project in which citizenship will participate.

The mayor, Joseba Asiron, assured at the beginning of his second term of office that a participatory process would take place, which would later be decided by the citizens. Now, that is not clear, because in reality EH Bildu, PSN and Geroa Bai are the majority in the City Council of Pamplona and in the Government of Navarra to take forward the project they have prepared.

The monument would be expressed as a centre of interpretation against fascism and would be called Marvels Lamberto. The choice of this name has been criticized by the memorialist groups and in an interview that Asiron has made to the Chain Ser has assured that he is willing to pronounce on it.

The historical position of the forces of EH Bildu has been in favour of the demolition of the monument and those of Geroa Bai have not gone far from there. The PSN, for its part, has been in favour of maintaining and restoring the monument in recent years. He's in favor of knocking it down with you and he's going to take part in the demonstration. The Navarre right has always been in favour of maintaining the monument. The conveners of the demonstration consider the agreement of EH Bildu, PSN and Geroa Bai to be a "historical betrayal".

What do the laws say?

The debate on the Memorial to the Fallen has many edges and one of them belongs to the field of law. Supporters of the demolition of the monument argue that the current memory laws require the demolition of the monument, and last October recorded in the City Hall of Pamplona an official request to materialize this demolition.

The City Council asked its legal services to report on the matter and considered that the Democratic Memory Act of 2022 does not oblige the demolition of the monument, so the conditions for cataloguing the Municipal Plan remain in place. Depending on them, the Monument is protected and any alteration will require the modification of the aforementioned rules, as well as the approval of the Prince of Viana Institution.

In recent months throughout Navarre there is a great debate about what needs to be done with the Memorial to the Fallen. The issue has many visions and in Larrun, dismissed in September, we gathered four people to talk about it, two were supporters of toppling and two other opposites. The reader will find many arguments to better fit into the subject.