A bust of Emili Darder was unveiled on Monday in Plaça Porta des Camp in Palma, a short distance from where he used to live. Darder, the last Republican mayor of Palma, was shot on the 24th of February, 1937.
Some two hundred people attended the ceremony and heard the current mayor, José Hila, repeat a claim that the building where Darder lived be returned to the city; it is ministry of defence property.
Darder's grandson, Ferran Cano, stressed the importance of the act of remembrance and the "shame" of what was the family home having been occupied by Francoists perpetrating a military coup. "Emili Darder was a pacifist and defended everything that was in the Spanish Constitution of the Second Republic."
Historian Antoni Marimon spoke on behalf of the associations of friends of Son Sardina, who had donated the bust. He explained the work that Darder had done for Palma's neighbourhoods. "He drew up a plan for the building of new schools, sanitary facilities, children's nurseries for working women. It was innovative at national level."
Maite Blázquez of Memoria de Mallorca said that Darder was only interested in improving people's day-to-day lives. He was assassinated because of his ideals. "His murderers were never tried." She was convinced, though, that "the chain of pain" that began with the fascist murders is now breaking, thanks to "these acts of reparation".
Hila added that Darder's only crime was to have been a left-wing mayor. His murder was a "shameful act".