The president of the Congress, Francina Armengol, applauded this Monday the removal of the portraits of the presidents of the Francoist Cortes that still hung in the gallery of portraits of the Palace of the Carrera de San Jerónimo, a decision that, in her words, "demonstrates the commitment of the Congress to democratic memory, recognizes the victims of the dictatorship, and contributes to repairing an injustice that has lasted too long."
In a message disseminated on social networks, Armengol also emphasized that with the removal of these paintings, compliance has been given to the agreement of the Table of the Permanent Deputation of the Congress to remove from the gallery the portraits of those who participated in the repression and in the structures that upheld the dictatorship, as well as what is provided in the Law of Democratic Memory.
After the dissolution of the Cortes, the Lower House executed last week the removal of the portraits of the presidents of the Francoist Cortes, a demand raised for decades by nationalist and leftist parties and by memorial associations. Until that moment, the PSOE had opposed the removal.
The initiative, driven this time by the Sumar deputy Esther Gil, was officially approved on October 13 with the support of PSOE and Sumar and the abstention of the PP. The work was accelerated to complete the removal before the event scheduled for this October 28 on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of the Military Coup, the Civil War, and the Dictatorship, which is celebrated every October 31.
The removed portraits belonged to Esteban de Bilbao y Eguía (1943-1965), Antonio Iturmendi Bañales (1965-1969), and Alejandro Rodríguez de Valcárcel y Nebreda (1969-1975), who were at the head of the Cortes during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.