MADRID: Spain’s leftist government will publish next month a list of symbols of General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship to be removed from public spaces, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday.

The move will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the death of Franco, who ruled Spain with an iron fist after his side emerged victorious from the country’s 1936-39 civil war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Sanchez told parliament that before the end of November, his government will publish “a complete list of Francoist symbols and elements, so they can finally be removed from our country and from our streets”.

From imposing neoclassical arches to quiet plazas named after regime loyalists, remnants of Franco’s nearly four-decade rule are still etched into the public landscape.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2025