The mayor of Puente de Génave (2,180 inhabitants, Jaén), Francisco García Avilés, belonging to Vox, reaffirmed himself in the publication of the Francoist calendars which he edited for distribution among the clients of the agency he owns. And he did so by justifying and praising the Franco regime. In his opinion, these criticisms “are simply due to the fact that a number of traumatized people do not fully accept that they lost a war in 1939 and that the man who represents that calendar placed Spain in 1975 among the 24 richest economies in the world according to the World Bank”.
Francisco García, who has governed with an absolute majority since the 2023 elections – Puente de Génave was the only Andalusian municipality in which Vox was the most voted party, both in the local and general elections of July 2023 – defended himself on social networks from the controversy generated by the 2026 calendars modified with the image of Franco and where it reads “Franco, Franco, long live Spain, until Spain”. “They do not intend nor have wanted anything other than to issue a call for freedom of expression and conscience which represents the society in which we live, so censored in recent times by the left of this country, since if they waved a republican flag, it would be a sign of progressivism and I would not be labeled far right or fascist,” he wrote. And it justifies the criticism it receives by being “this shitty company that’s looking for four shitty headlines to attack the right.”
The Ponte councilor says he is aware of the “fuss” that his calendars have generated, which according to him concern the management of his property which is now managed by someone else, a practice, he says, which he has been carrying out “for more than 30 years”. “In fact, given the armed turmoil, I am thinking of presenting it at the Moma museum in New York, since it is still an undervalued work of art, of a person whose tomb was desecrated a few years ago by the left of this country,” he explains on his social networks.
The mayor is a repeat offender in distributing calendars. In 2024 he distributed 800 copies of an almanac among his customers which then reported the images of Franco and José Antonio Primo de Rivera with the phrase “I am responsible only to God and history”. “Such a controversy has never been generated, so I don’t understand the fuss that is currently being created to be mayor of Puente de Génave, elections that I won with an absolute majority after more than 30 years of socialism,” García indicated.
The Government Sub-delegation in Jaén communicated that from the moment the calendar was made known, it was sent to the Secretariat of State for Democratic Memory and the corresponding dossier was opened. Both the PSOE and other left-wing parties, such as the PCE or Adelante Andalucía, have condemned the dissemination of these calendars and have asked for the intervention of the Prosecutor’s Office for a possible crime against the Law on Democratic Memory.
“Exalting a dictatorial regime that has brought death, repression, poverty, misery and backwardness to our country is an insult that offends and humiliates the victims and their families. And, of course, it must not go unpunished, especially when we are in a province where thousands of people have been shot”, underlined Miguel Ángel Valdivia, head of Democratic Memory of the PSOE of Jaén.
“Take care of your party’s tasks, which are not few, such as making deals with terrorists, spending taxpayers’ money on whores and private parties, as well as selling the country to those who burn our flag every day and betray our constitutional values,” García responded on his social networks.
The controversy generated by the calendars coincided in time with the disappearance of the gigantic Spanish flag that fluttered on a flagpole located at the entrance to this town of Jaén, the gateway to the Sierra de Segura. Some events that intensified the verbal confrontation between the mayor and the PSOE councilors in the municipal opposition.
