Fernando Martínez López, secretary of the superior body of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, has sent a letter to the mayor of Cádiz, Bruno García, requesting a review of the decision to keep the name 'Teatro Pemán' for the new coliseum in Parque Genovés. The letter asserts that this designation is "incompatible" with current legislation.
In the communication, Martínez López urges the government team of the City Council of Cádiz to "promote the necessary actions to adapt the designation of the aforementioned public space to what is established in the Democratic Memory Law." A one-month period is granted to report on the measures taken and the legal and historical criteria considered.
Law 20/2022, the secretary reminds, imposes on public administrations the duty to remove elements and designations that exalt the military uprising of 1936, the Spanish Civil War, or the Dictatorship. The Secretariat of Memory considers that the figure of José María Pemán Pemartín, due to his participation in political and ideological structures of Francoism and his support for the Dictatorship, makes maintaining his name contrary to the law.
The State Secretariat concludes that the maintenance or recovery of this honorary designation "is incompatible with the obligations established by Law 20/2022 and with the principles of truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-repetition." It warns that the persistence of mentions contrary to democratic memory may lead to actions to ensure its removal.
The mayor of Cádiz has defended the decision to keep the name on several occasions, arguing that on January 15, 2026, the High Court of Justice of Andalusia annulled the act by which the City Council's Plenary removed the title of Favorite Son from José María Pemán, due to "defective reasoning".
