Spain’s new leader vows to exhume Franco’s remains from controversial mausoleum
SPAIN’s new Prime Minister has vowed to exhume the remains of fascist dictator Francisco Franco from the Valley of the Fallen, a huge mausoleum near Madrid and turn into into a place of “reconciliation”.
He said: “We don’t have a date yet, but the government will do it.
"Spain can't allow symbols that divide Spaniards.
“Something that is unimaginable in Germany or Italy, countries that also suffered fascist dictatorships, should also not be imaginable in our country.”
Franco is a hugely controversial figure in Spain, having taken control of the country in 1939 after a civil war between his right-wing Nationalist forces and Republicans which left up to 500,000 dead.
Years of brutal repression followed, with estimates suggesting the first decade of his rule resulted in the deaths of between 15,000 and 50,000 of his political opponents.
Despite this, he remained in power until his death in 1975.
Work on the Valley of the Fallen, a huge basilica carved out of the living rock on a hillside 30 mile north-west of the Spanish capital, began in 1940.
Large numbers of convicts, including Republican prisoners, were used as labourers during the course of the 18 years it took to complete.
Each year on November 20, the Francisco Franco Foundation organises a mass to commemorate the anniversary of his death.
In the past, the site has been a rallying point for supporters of Franco and neo-fascist organisations, although such demonstrations are now outlawed.
Professor Paul Preston of the London School of Economics told Express.co.uk: “This has been a burning issue since the death of Franco in 1975 – the Valle de los Caídos, where the dictator’s body is buried, was his gigantic monument built by the slave labour of Republican prisoners – leaving Spain as the only European country where the Dictator is celebrated.
“There are no monuments to Hitler in Germany or Austria, or to Mussolini in Italy.
“It is still a place of pilgrimage for his devotees.
“Unlike Hitler and Mussolini who were overthrown by foreign armies, Franco survived for thirty years after 1945.
“From the late 1930s until 1975, he carried out a programme of national brain-washing through his control of the media and the education backed up by an apparatus of terror.
“That ensured that two generations were brought up to believe that he was a benefactor for Spain.
“When democracy was restored in 1977, there was no counter brain-washing and pro-Franco ideas continued to circulate.
Spanish civil war survivor calls for apology from authorities
No government has done what Pedro Sánchez is proposing because of fears of a right-wing backlash
“No government has done what Pedro Sánchez is proposing because of fears of a right-wing backlash.”
Only Mr Rajoy’s Popular Party has opposed blocked moves to tackle the issue, but Mr Sanchez’s plans look likely to attract enough support to become law this time round.
Centrist party Ciudadanos has said it was open to the idea of exhuming Franco’s remains, while anti-establishment party Podemos has also hailed the initiative.
Spokesman Pablo Echenique said it was wrong for “a genocidal dictator" to rest "in a giant mausoleum while there are tens of thousands of dead in mass graves".