The PSPV_PSOE has demanded that all schools bearing names that relate to the Franco regime be changed.
The Socialist spokesperson of Education in the Valencian Corts, Ana Besalduch, has proposed the elimination of “any reference that extols the Francoism” that is currently contained in the name of any Valencian educational centre.
She said in a statement, “there are still a dozen schools or institutes that have retained the name of José Luis Villar, a Valencian minister during the dictatorship, General Urrutia, who was one of the insurgents that fought with Franco in 1936 and who was subsequently named Captain General of Valencia, and Primo de Rivera, founder of the Spanish Falange movement”.
Besalduch said that these names “contravene the Law of Historical Memory of 2007” so she is insisting that they be changed. She also lamented that after 39 years of democracy “there are still public acclamations to the period of the Franco dictatorship.”
Currently there are seven educational centres that are named after the Francoist minister, Villar Palasí, in València, Sagunto, Quart de Poblet, Paterna, Xirivella, Burjassot and Orihuela; two that bear the name of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, in Crevillent and Callosa de Segura, and one in Valencia with the name of General Urrutia.
“One of the greatest honours that a person can have is to have a public school, institute or university bearing his or her name, because they are places that help children to develop and to train for the future”. However, she maintains that “it is not admissible that in the Comunitat, there are a number of educational centres that still exist that are named after people who had questionable behaviour”.
She said that “it is not ethical”, and “article 15 of the law 52/2007, expressly prohibits it”. As such the Community must take appropriate measures for the removal of shields, badges, plaques and other objects or commemorative items of acclamation, personal or collective, of the Civil War and the repression of the dictatorship
