On the 20th of September the Paseo de Las Flores will officially have its name changed to Paseo Miguel Ángel Blanco.
Two things may need pointing out: the Paseo de Las Flores is the section of the paseo along Playa San Cristóbal between El Peñón del Santo and the bridge over Río Seco.
The second thing is, who is Miguel Blanco? Miguel Blanco was a PP councillor from a town in the Basque Country who was kidnapped by ETA before finally being executed by them in 1997. His death caused such an outcry that demostrations broke out all over Spain with people painting their hands white (blanco).
This rejection by Spanish society in general was a nail in the coffin of this domestic terrorist organisation, ETA. It finally lost all relevance leading to its disbanding some time after 9/11 (Twin Towers) over in the States, four years later.
The act on the 20th will be attended by Miguel’s sister, Mari Mar Blanco, who has since become a prominent member of the PP.
It should also be remembered that this stretch of paseo has been mostly resurfaced already; the coming name change wasn’t mentioned in the press releases that announced the renovation of the paseo.
According to the Mayor, Juan Jose Ruiz Joya, 60% of young people today have no idea who Miguel Blanco was, so when the Town Hall was approached by the Fundación Miguel Ángel Blanco which wanted to reverse this tendency, the Town Hall agreed. Actually, we’re not sure who approached whom first.
Presently, there are over a hundred streets, avenues and squares that bear his name all over Spain.
Editorial comment: Instead of choosing somebody from the Mayor’s own party to honour as a victim of ETA, why not choose the last ETA victims in 2009, which is equally as important, surely? On the 30th of July that year, ETA put a bomb under a Guardia Civil patrol car in Mallorca, killing officers Sáenz de Tejada García and Diego Salva Lezaun: El Paseo Sáenz & Salva. Better still, just stop politicising street names and leave it as it was.
After all, during the 42 years that ETA was active, they killed 850 people, amongst them civilians, politicians, members of the judicial system, Basque police officers (Ertazinas), civilian police officers, military personnel and 210 Guardia Civil police officers.
(Almuñécar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)