Spanish Civil War wounds re-opened by Franco decision

In death, as in life, General Francisco Franco – the former Spanish dictator whose tomb lies near the quiet town of El Escorial – is creating controversy after a government-appointed committee voted to exhume his corpse and re-bury it next to his wife in a cemetary in Madrid.

The town, around 30 miles from Madrid, was largely republican-held during Spain’s civil war between 1936 and 1939.

But for the past three decades, it has been home to the man they fought against and often an attraction for the far right.

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The Valley of the Fallen is a mass grave monument, containing the remains of around 34,000 people – of both republican and loyalist forces.

The landmark, featuring a 150m cross that can be seen for miles, was built on Franco’s orders at the end of the conflict and became his own resting place when he died in 1975.

Untold numbers of republican prisoners of war were put to work constructing the site, which Franco described as a “national act of atonement”, many of them going to an early grave themselves.

Now, the commission set up to decide its future want to make the site a sombre reminder of the bloody conflict but free from Franco’s shadow. The commission was established by Spain’s outgoing socialist government and is made up of twelve experts.

They recommended earlier this week that the remains of Franco be removed from the site, citing the fact that he did not die in the civil war.

Virgilio Zapatero, one of the presidents of the commission called for “the Valley of the Fallen to given new meaning, free of ideological and political connotations. It must be reserved for the victims of the war. Franco is the only person buried there who did not die in the war”.

Franco’s grave has long been a rallying point for Spain’s residual far right and there have been ugly confrontations at the site over the years on the anniversary of his death on 20 November. Demonstrations at the site were banned in 2007.

A spokesperson for the ministry in charge of the monument, said the moves were not “anachronistic” but based on “justice and reconcilliation”.

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Carmen Franco, the dictator’s daughter, said that her family are against any exhumation. However, she also told the committee that her father never specified that he wanted to be buried there

The Catholic Church has remained tight-lipped about any exhumation, though the committee said it would prefer to have its blessing for exhumation.

“If they [the church] oppose this and pressure the new government to pull it … then the church would become the custodian of the dictator,” said Fancisco Ferrandiz, an anthropologist and member of the committee.

Like the Catholic Church, the incoming government of Mariano Rojoy’s Popular Party are also keeping quiet about the proposed changes.

Families of republicans who died in the conflict have asked for their relative’s remains to be returned, though Spanish government forensic teams say this is near-impossible and none are to be exhumed from the site.

The €13 million (£11.1m) plan is to revamp the site with a museum and make it less of a shrine to the cult of Franco and more of a site where Spaniards can reflect on a troubled, sad and desperate time in their country’s history.