Falangist? Changing a street name opens a Pandora's box in Argentona

Argentona has a street with two names. It's not that the street changes name because of its length. Passeig de la República has the exact same location as Passeig del Baró de Viver. Needless to say, this causes headaches for delivery drivers who have to deliver packages to residents who live there. But this isn't the reason that led the Heritage Councilor to eliminate this duplication, a move that has opened a can of worms for the Maresme municipality.

In 2018, at the height of the Catalan independence movement, the town council, governed by Eudald Calvo's CUP party, approved, with votes in favor from ERC and ICV and one independent councilor, changing the name of Passeig del Baró de Viver to Passeig de la República, while keeping the "3" in both names. The change was made without informing the residents, who, despite their surprise, didn't raise a fuss. Only two of them filed appeals, which the council never responded to. Seven years later, the brother of the former mayor and councilor for Heritage, Bernat Calvo, upheld the appeal and recently called a hearing with the residents. Without resolving these appeals, the plenary agreement could not be validated. "It was our obligation," he asserts in statements to ARA, making no secret of his support for restoring the original name.

The residents, who have suffered all this time when carrying out administrative procedures, have supported the change. The result was that 77 residents supported restoring the original name and only 6 defended keeping the current one. "The numbers are too conclusive to ignore. If the result had been close, we wouldn't change the name," he clarifies. And he confesses that "it's not a rejection of the Republic, but of how the change was made." However, the underlying debate is which Baron of Viver he is referring to. The councilman argues that it can only be the first, Darius Romeu i Torrents (1849-1905), a liberal politician who was president of the Barcelona Provincial Council. "The street name was given in 1901 and, therefore, has no connection whatsoever with either the Primo de Rivera dictatorship or the Franco regime," Calvo emphasizes, to differentiate him from the second baron, who did collaborate with the uprising and fascist regime. He cites as proof the fact that the first democratic city council in 1979 did not remove him from the street names.

The ANC and the Council of the Republic, which will bring a motion to reverse the reinstatement at the next plenary session—where it must be validated—see things differently. Both entities believe that the Franco regime only reinstated names aligned with it and refer to the decision made by the Falangists when they occupied the City Hall at gunpoint. "Replace the names of the squares and streets of this town that glorify personalities or events incompatible with the Glorious National Movement with names consistent with its ideological programThus, the coup leaders changed the name of Gran Street to Avenida del Caudillo; Prat de la Riba Street to 19 de Julio (the day of the uprising); Fermín Galán Street to José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Spanish Falange and son of the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera; and Pi y Margall Street to Barón de Viver.

"Legacy of Francoism"

In any case, both associations conclude that restoring the name of the Passeig del Baró de Viver is, in the words of secretary Albert Vila, "an imposition and a legacy of Francoism." "Whether it refers to the first or second Baron de Viver is irrelevant, it doesn't matter at all," he adds. The same organizations emphasize that if the coup d'état that the Baron de Viver supported had not taken place, or if the Republicans had won the war, the Passeig would very likely still be called Pi i Margall. And in any case, they point out that the Barony of Viver is a monarchical title and "the Bourbon monarchy is the continuation of Francoism." Calvo argues that the sign will state that it refers to the first Baron. For the organizations, adding the birth and death years to the plaque is "whitewashing" Francoism, and reinterpreting the name would be explaining that it was the Falangists who imposed it.

Calvo has already stated that they intend to relocate the name of this promenade to another area of the town and that it will not disappear from the municipal street names. "I will propose that it be named after the Town Hall street or the new square that will be built at the entrance to the town, where everyone enters, and there will be no conflicts with any residents," the councilor points out."It's not about naming a worthy place 'Republic,' but rather that Argentona reject the name imposed by the Falangists, a name that honors a fascist who benefited from both dictatorships," the associations argue. They also don't understand why such an important decision wasn't discussed with all residents, especially after one of the appeals was filed claiming the decision was neutral, and why no effort was made to inform the community.