Spain’s Republican Flag Reappears
“Every Thursday evening, in the middle of the Puerta del Sol, a small crowd gathers around an equestrian statue of King Carlos III to stage a modest protest. There are rarely more than 25 people, most of them in their 70s. The first thing several of them do is unfurl a banner that reads: ‘Against impunity, in solidarity with the victims of Francoism,'”Jonathan Blitzer wrote in the New York Times last week:
Then, a few others hoist up the tricolor flag of Spain’s Second Republic. Its yellow, red and purple bands hearken back to an era of democratic promise. That tumultuous period, which began in 1931 with the election of a left-leaning coalition that sent King Alfonso XIII into exile, had its share of political squabbles and reactionary violence. But it also brought heady euphoria and a raft of egalitarian reforms. A new constitution enshrined women’s suffrage and freedom of speech, while stripping the nobility of its erstwhile privileges.
Read the whole piece here.
