SPAIN’S Superior Court will hear a bid to overturn the naming of Murcia’s airport at Corvera in tribute to local air pioneer, Juan de la Cierva.
The national government argues that he had direct links to dictator General Franco.
The regional Murcia government defied requests not to name the facility after the autogyro inventor in May.
The Attorney General in Madrid says the naming violates the Historical Memory law.
Murcia’s government said in May that it was an appropriate tribute to the ‘legacy that the Murcian inventor deserves’.
De la Cierva is alleged to have chartered a plane for General Franco in the thirties.
He used it to travel from Tenerife to Morocco, from where he planned what became the start of the Spanish Civil War.
Relatives claimed that de la Cierva had no idea of what Franco was up to.
The submission to the Superior Court also states the national government has the final say in airport names- irrespective of what regional administrations want.
A submission from a historian to the government last year saw them reverse their approval first granted in 2020 to use de la Cierva’s name.
Murcia’s regional government say they have evidence from two historians that states the inventor had no connection to Franco.
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