Some vestiges of the Francoist past will remain in Elche (Alicante)

ELCHE city hall warned that changing street names to comply with the regional government’s Democratic Memory Law was impractical.

The Carrus neighbourhood where the streets are located has 80,000 inhabitants, 26,000 homes and 8,000 business premises, Elche’s mayor, Carlos Gonzalez said.

“Renaming 123 streets would generate grave social, economic and postal problems,” he insisted, in response to the request from the Generalitat’s Participation, Transparency, Cooperation and Democratic Quality department.

The streets in question have links, sometimes tenuous, to the Francoist regime, prompting Gonzalez to argue that Calle Jose Maria Peman, dedicated to the late pro-Franco writer, displayed no vestiges of glorification of Francoism. 

The mayor also maintained that the streets to the north of the city cited by regional government were called after people whose names did not imply praise for the former regime.

Gonzalez confirmed that the Cruz de los Caidos cross in Paseo de Germanias would be eliminated.  Nevertheless, he added, its removal would be timed to coincide with plans to remodel and modernise the much-visited area which has been virtually untouched for almost 40 years.

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