Remains of former Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco to be exhumed almost four decades after his death

Spanish authorities has finalised preparations to remove General Francisco Franco’s remains from a state mausoleum, seeking to exorcise the ghost of a dictator whose legacy still divides the country more than four decades after his death.

Amid tight security and in virtual secrecy, his coffin is to be taken from the Valley of the Fallen and reburied in a private family vault.

“It’s intensely symbolic for Spain,” said political scientist Pablo Simon, “because the (Franco) monument has always been connected to those who miss the old regime.” 

The exhumation ceremony is due to begin at 10:30 local time (0830 GMT) and, with media barred from witnessing it, will be attended by a select few: Justice Minister Dolores Delgado, a forensics expert, a priest, and 22 of Franco’s descendants.  

They include his oldest grandson Francisco Franco, who labeled the operation and its low-key nature a political ploy by the governing Socialist Party. A Spanish Franco-era flag hung outside his home in Madrid’s embassy district on Thursday as the relatives converged on the valley before being transported to the Mingorrubio cemetery north of Madrid where the dictator is to be reburied.

“I feel a great deal of rage because they have used something as cowardly as digging up a corpse, using a body as propaganda and political publicity to win a handful of votes before an election,” his grandson told Reuters.

In government since mid-2018 and facing a national election next month, the Socialists have long sought to exhume his remains from the Valley of the Fallen, a huge monument built on Franco’s orders and which contains the remains of combatants from both sides of the war.