Spain: Unease Over Planned Statue Honoring Elite Troops In Military Dictator Franco's Fascist Mvmt.

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- The bronze Legionnaire statue.
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'Soldier statue reignites Spanish row over fascism,' By James Badcock, BBC News, July 21, 2021.

There is unease in Spain over plans for a Madrid statue honouring soldiers who spearheaded Franco's fascist movement. This week marks the centenary of what is often described as the most shocking defeat in the history of the Spanish military - the annihilation of a colonial force at the Battle of Annual, in what is now northern Morocco. The rise of the Legión (Spanish Legion), an elite regiment, was a response to that.

It is no ordinary force, but was born of the anger over Spanish defeats - seen as humiliations - at the hands of anti-colonial rebels. The Legión became almost a symbol of Spanish virility and was the idea of Gen José Millán Astray, who would later be a leading element of the fascist cause in civil war Spain, with his war cry Viva la Muerte! (Long live death!) Formed in 1920, it was modelled on the French Foreign Legion, designed to attract volunteers and so reduce the need for conscripts, who were struggling in the harsh conditions. For some, it is a colourful element of the Spanish military.

But for others it is shocking that Spain continues to have a force linked to Francisco Franco - apparently at odds with Spain's historical memory law, which bans tributes to the late dictator. The statue initiative has divided opinion, echoing the disputes over colonial-era statues in other countries, such as the attacks on symbols of slavery. While Black Lives Matter and other movements have focused on which old statues to pull down, Spain is immersed in a battle over which figures to erect and what parts of its past to commemorate - or to consign to history's dustbin.

Military historian Luis Gonzalo Segura said: "The Legión does not deserve any kind of homage, not in Madrid or anywhere else. Its acts should be scrutinised and then it should disappear."

A Berber army killed as many as 20,000 Spanish soldiers at the Battle of Annual on 22 July, 1921. The Legión led the response. Military historians say it used extreme violence - torturing, mutilating and raping Berber villagers - and soldiers revelled in their own barbarism by keeping trophies from victims' bodies. Before becoming Spain's military dictator, Francisco Franco headed the Legión in North Africa. Under him it brutally put down a revolutionary uprising led by miners in the northern Spanish region of Asturias in 1934...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57902023



- The legionnaires have a distinctive marching style.