Franco exhumed, Francoism alive

Almost 44 years after his death, the acting Spanish government fulfills one of Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez’s main election pledges: to exhume the remains of late dictator Francisco Franco from the Valley of the Fallen memorial site to a family tomb in a cemetery near Madrid. The efforts to have the dictator’s remains removed from “a public mausoleum that exalts his figure”, in the words of the Spanish government, have been held up by months of legal wrangling, until a Supreme Court ruling recently opened the way for the exhumation to take place.

The removal and reburying of the remains is a complex case that goes to the very heart of Spain’s identity as a modern democracy coming on the heels of 40 years of dictatorship. Parallels with a similar situation with Hitler in Germany are unthinkable, of course. The fact is that the soft political transition in Spain after Franco’s death has made it possible for Francoism to endure and to be “alive and kicking”, as described in this article in The Spectator and as the EU has often pointed out.

Mass conducted by son of coup leader

The exhumation began at 10.30 am on October 24. Franco’s remains will be immediately taken from the memorial site some 60km north of Madrid and transported to the Mingorrubio-El Pardo municipal cemetery where Franco’s widow, Carmen Polo, is buried. The removal of the remains could take some hours, depending on the state of the coffin, which was buried in concrete to protect it from water damage. Weather permitting, the remains will make the short journey to their new resting place by helicopter.

The operation will be a strictly private affair in the presence of various members of the Franco family, with acting justice minister Dolores Delgado representing the Spanish government. Heavy security will prevent any members of the press from accessing the site. Franco relatives entered the Valley of the Fallen with Spanish preconstitutional flags.

#URGENTE | El nieto mayor de Franco, Francis Franco, con una bandera preconstitucional a su llegada al Valle de los Caídos #ExhumaciónFranco pic.twitter.com/rKNBQavV05

— EFE Noticias (@EFEnoticias) October 24, 2019

Before the remains are interred in the family mausoleum in the cemetery, a service will be held for Franco’s family members, who have requested that a mass be conducted by priest Ramón Tejero, the son of Antonio Tejero, who led a failed military coup in 1981. Antonio Tejero himself was helped by the Spanish police into the ceremony area as shown in this video:

Tejero pasa el cerco policial. Hasta ahora nadie que no estaba acreditado podía hacerlo. pic.twitter.com/BeFPDodjQ7

— Héctor Juanatey (@hectorjuanatey) October 24, 2019

PHOTO GALLERY –> click here