Madrid Monument To International Brigade Vandalised

A MONUMENT to the volunteers of the International Brigades who fought for the Republic during the Spanish Civil War ( 1936 -1939) has been has been vandalised with swastikas.

The monument was erected the southern district of Vicalvaro in November 2017, and had been previously vandalized in 2018 when it was daubed with Nazi grafiti including the number 88 which is far-right code for Hitler.
The latest attack was reported to have taken place yesterday, March 21st with swastikas painted on it.

The incident was reported by local people and shared widely on social media which attracted considerable numbers of outraged people who descended on the site to clean it of the grafitti.

The left-wing Young Socialist group of the district condemned the attack and said that ” everyone knows everyone in Vicálvaro and would fight against this “hate”.

The monolith to the International Brigades was installed in the Vicalvaro Gardens on the 81st anniversary of the formation of the brigades at the start of the Civil War.

The brigades attracted large numbers of international volunteers who answered the call of the then Prime Minister, Largo Caballero to defend the Second Republic which had been proclaimed in 1931 with the abdication of King Alfonso XII.

The headquarters of the XI International Brigade was in the area and they played a leading role in the defence of the city and repelling the Nationalist offensive of 1937.

The main International Brigades left Spain with the fall of Barcelona in 1938.

Madrid finally fell to the victorious armies of General Franco in March 1939, ending the three year old war.

The attack comes amid new tensions with a resurgent neo-nazi movement in Madrid.

Last month saw widespread comdemnation of a far-right rally at the Almudena Cathedral in which hundreds of neo-nazi supporters commemorated the fascist Blue Divsion which fought with Hitler on the Russian front between 1941 and 1944.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPANISH NEWS

Share The Madrid Metropolitan: The only Madrid English language newspaper