The statue, depicting dictator Francisco Franco riding a horse, was removed from its location in Nuevos Ministerios and subsequently stored in March 2005.

[4] The ensemble had a total height of 7.5 m.[5] Over the years, the monument became a meeting point of Francoists every 20 November, while it also became the target for tagging carried out by left-wing sympathizers.

[7] In the early morning of 17 March 2005, employees of the Tragsa company upon request of the Subsecretariat of the Ministry of Public Works removed the statue from the plinth during an operative that took some hours.

[1] The day after the removal a group of 700 far-right militants—including Blas Piñar—gathered around the empty pedestal to give a bizarre farewell to Franco, singing a Hail Mary and the Cara al Sol, also inveighing against the Government of Spain, the People's Party, and, most acrimoniously, against José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Santiago Carrillo, while also trying to vandalise the nearby statues of Indalecio Prieto and Largo Caballero.

"[10] Meanwhile, former Francoist honcho José Utrera Molina—from the platform La Razón granted him—wrote against the removal of statues, arguing that "Franco still rides serene and majestic in the air of history".