Franco, the Lucky Coward

I have always considered Francisco Franco a complete coward, but a lucky one. Somehow his image has been cleaned for decades and today there is even a few derelicts that deny that he was on Hitler's side throughout the whole period previous to WWII and if Spain did not enter the war on the side of the Axis was because the Generalisimo was far from being an able military leader and Hitler ordered him to stay out of it.

It is high time the international community acknowledges that Franco and Hitler were about to unleash a Holocaust on the Basque people. If they failed was because it is hard to put a Basque and his family in a train and ship them out without the fella breaking a couple of German necks in the process.

This is a note about the demand of the Basque people for Madrid to finally acknowledge Franco's role on the massacre, it appeared today at Berria English:

Mayor wants recognition that Franco ordered the bombing

The mayor of Gernika has made this request to the Spanish Government on the 67th anniversary of the massacre of the town

Editorial Staff – BILBO

Yesterday was the 67th anniversary of the bombing of Gernika by the German Condor Legion on the orders of the dictator Francisco Franco. Although many years have passed since those events and numerous calls have been made for Franco’s responsibility to be acknowledged, there has been no response as yet from the Spanish Government. That is the request made by Migel Angel Aranaz, the mayor of Gernika, to Jose Luis Rodriguez-Zapatero’s Government: to admit that Franco ordered the bombing of Gernika.

Aranaz pointed out that many people who experienced the massacre and descendants of those killed there are still alive “and their wounds have not yet been closed”. In the mayor’s view a formal acknowledgement by the Spanish Government would help them to come to terms with what they went through.

“Germany acknowledged seven years ago that it was the Condor Legion which had bombed Gernika and it had of course done so on Franco’s orders,” explained Aranaz in an interview broadcast on the Euskadi Irratia radio station. That being the case the mayor of Gernika said: “We want the Spanish Government to admit its responsibility, too.” He added: “67 years have gone by and it’s time that things were recognised.”

In a letter presented in the Spanish Senate (upper house) Iñaki Anasagasti, the EAJ-PNV Senator, called on the Government to accept responsibility for the bombing. In it he recalled that Congress (the lower house) took the decision to formally admit responsibility in 1999 and with the support of all the parties; so “the decisions taken should be fulfilled”.

Numerous events were also organised to mark the anniversary. Yesterday the official event was held in Gernika. A floral tribute was made to those who suffered the bombing and who are still alive. Among those present were Idoia Zenarruzabeitia, the Deputy Lehendakari or President of the Basque Autonomous Community Government, Jose Luis Bilbao, the Head of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, and the mayor of Gernika himself. The time of the bombing was marked by the sound of a siren and the Matraka play on the war was performed in the streets of this town in Bizkaia.

The XIV International Culture and Peace Symposium organised by the Gernika Gogoratuz association is currently being held. The Gernika Committee and the Arrano Cultural Association also organised a round-table discussion yesterday. Martxelo Otamendi, BERRIA’s Editor-in-Chief, and Alizia Stürtze, historian, were among those who took part.

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