The removal is scheduled to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of a coup attempt by Franco supporters, a government source told CNN.
There were 14 votes in favor, 10 abstentions and one vote against, from the right-wing Vox party, he said.
“Today, Melilla restores dignity and justice,” said Gloria Rojas, vice president of Melilla and a member of the Socialist Party, according to a PSOE tweet.
The bronze statue was made by sculptor Enrique Novo and erected in 1978, three years after Franco’s death, the government source said.
It commemorates his defense of Melilla in 1921 during the Reef War against the Berber tribes of Morocco’s Reef Mountains, according to the
source.
The statue was moved in 2005 but remained in public view until Tuesday, the last statue of Franco standing on Spanish soil, he added.
The source is now in storage, but its removal is permanent.
Tuesday was the anniversary of the 1981 coup attempt by military officers who held lawmakers hostage in Madrid for 18 hours. The attempt came just six years after Franco’s death, ushering in the transition from Spain to democracy.
Franco ruled Spain from the late 1930s and thousands of executions were carried out by his nationalist regime during the Spanish Civil War and in the years that followed.
Franco’s Spain was officially neutral during World War II, but supported the Axis Powers of Germany and Italy.
After the war, he was seen by many as the last surviving fascist dictator and was wiped out by the United Nations. His regime was partially rehabilitated during the Cold War because of Franco’s staunch anti-communist ideology.
In 2007, the Spanish government passed the Historical Memory Act, which formally condemned the Franco regime. The legislation stipulates that symbols associated with Franco must be removed from the public eye.
In October 2019, Franco’s remains were exhumed from the large mausoleum where he was buried in 1975 to the nearby Mingorrubio State Cemetery in El Pardo, where his wife was buried.
The excavation was an important promise from Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez when he came to power in 2018.
Franco’s family and his far-right supporters opposed the plan and the family appealed the decision without success in the courts.