Felipe VI chair the 95th anniversary of the Legion
Millán-Astray and Franco headed the unit rose against the Republic
On his website there are still references to the "Liberation of the besieged Alcazar" and praise the dictator
September 20 is the festival of the Legion. Each year marks the anniversary of this unit light of the Armed Forces. But this year is special: it commemorates the 95 years of its creation, and King Philip VI has agreed to preside over the great celebration that will take place on the basis of Viator, Almería.
While Catalonia will live the last days of an election campaign that could decide their future as a people, the reigning monarch will review troops of a military institution that since its inception has symbolized the values of fascism in uniform. The Legion was founded in 1920 by artillery lieutenant colonel José Millán Astray, with the objective that they were professional troops, nourished by Spaniards and foreigners following the model of the French Legion, which faces rebels Rif in Morocco.
José Millán Astray was the founder of the Legion and its ideologue. When was the first head. After it was Colonel Francisco Franco, who was a friend of his few friends- perhaps. Millán-Astray starred in an incident with Miguel de Unamuno in the auditorium of the University of Salamanca in October 1936. Unamuno The rector protested angrily after one of the participants talked to Catalonia and the Basque Country as "Song of Spain "and the military reacted unholsters his pistol and shouting" Viva la muerte! "and" ¡Muera intelligence ".
It is striking that the website of the Legion, despite the evident effort to soften the more ideological aspects of his history-Franco continues exposing the sympathies of the military unit, the praises Franco and his support for the military coup of July 1936. It states that "fits fuerzas pray that the Legion participaron in the primeras shares in the Moroccan protectorate on 17 July 1936".
At another point, talking about the Civil War, can be read as highlights "of the Liberation besieged Alcázar de Toledo" and "fight to take them primeros Madrid." It is striking that, forty years after the dictator's death, the script has not been made a little more each day. Next September, while Catalonia prepares to vote, the Spanish monarch will honor Millán-Astray.