A foundation that celebrates former Spanish dictator Franco succeeded in blocking Madrid from changing the names of streets that commemorate the dictator's "heroes".

I suspect that this success reflects the hidden power of his supporters that remain influential in the right-wing governing party and in the state.

I don't think it is right to try to ban ideas, but the state can legitimately cut off the mechanisms of influence that they use to promote tyranny.

Meanwhile, Spain has done little to commemorate Franco's victims — those that died fighting his coup, and those that his forces murdered or imprisoned afterwards. Many of them were used for forced labor, building monuments that say little about who built them.