Overview
- The Audiencia Nacional dismissed the appeal by the Francisco Franco Foundation against the Defence Ministry’s 2023 decision to replace 'Bandera Comandante Franco' with 'Bandera de España'.
- The court relied on Supreme Court doctrine to conclude that public honors to Franco cannot be separated from his role as leader of the 1936 uprising and the dictatorship.
- The judges rejected the Foundation’s bid to raise a constitutional question about Article 35, stating there were no reasonable doubts about its constitutionality.
- The panel accepted the State’s argument that mere exaltation of the regime’s top figure contravenes the law’s aims and must be ended by the administration.
- The Foundation was ordered to pay legal costs capped at €1,500 after a proceeding that examined the case over roughly three years.