Spanish Government will exhume the dictator Franco within two weeks

USPA NEWS - The remains of the dictator Francisco Franco will be exhumed before October 25, as agreed by the Government of Spain after its last meeting. A week earlier, the Government had received permission from the Supreme Court to access the Basilica of the Valle de los Caidos, in northwestern Madrid, open the tomb and take out the remains of the former head of State from 1939 to 1975. His remains, despite the opposition of the family, they will be buried in the cemetery of El Pardo.

Franco's exhumation was an obsession with the current Prime Minister of Spain, the socialist Pedro Sanchez, who believes that the remains of the dictator cannot share a burial place with 1,600 imprisoned Republicans who built the basilica as punishment after the Spanish Civil War. The first attempt at exhumation was in February, but the family's resources, contrary to the Government's plans, delayed the decision. Now, on the eve of the beginning of the campaign for the November 10 elections, but with the support of the Supreme Court, the Government has decided not to delay the exhumation. He will inform the family 48 hours in advance and exhume Franco's remains before October 25.

The family opposes the exhumation and, if this is inevitable, wants the remains of the former head of State, the victorious general in the Civil War Francisco Franco, to be buried in the cathedral of Madrid. But the Government wants to prevent the place of burial of the dictator from becoming a place of pilgrimage for the nostalgic people of Franco and believes that the best place to bury it is the cemetery of El Pardo. In this small town in the north of Madrid, the dictator had his palace and there rests the remains of his wife Carmen Polo.

The family wants the Supreme Court to stop the exhumation. Otherwise, they threaten to go to the EU Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. However, everything indicates that, on this occasion, the Spanish Government will achieve its purpose of removing Franco from the Valle de los Caidos and turning that place into a center of reconciliation, peace and homage to the Republicans who fought for freedoms in Spain.