Palma signatures seek honour for Pilar Sánchez Llabrés

A signature campaign opens in Palma, Mallorca, on 18 September 2026 to seek a civic honour for Pilar Sánchez Llabrés, 90 years after she was murdered. Memòria de Mallorca wants Palma City Council to name the socialist and feminist activist a hija ilustre, or illustrious daughter. Sánchez Llabrés was killed by a Falangist squad in September 1936.

Memòria de Mallorca says the city still owes her institutional recognition. It filed its first formal request with the council in September 2024.

Born in Palma in 1903, Sánchez Llabrés lived in La Soledad and worked as a vendor at Plaza Mayor market. She took an active part in the city’s political and social life during the Second Republic.

On 8 March 1936, she spoke at an International Working Women’s Day rally at Palma’s Casa del Pueblo alongside Aurora Picornell and Antònia Pascual.

After the July 1936 coup, Sánchez Llabrés went into hiding. Those behind the coup arrested her children and her husband, the socialist Miquel Borel, in an effort to find her. Borel was tortured and jailed in Castell de Bellver.

A Falangist squad arrested Sánchez Llabrés in September 1936. She was raped, tortured and murdered. Her body was found at the Son Palou estate in Sencelles on 18 September 1936.

Topics: Politics · Palma · Sencelles

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com