MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish lawmakers on Thursday voted to remove the remains of dictator Francisco Franco from a mausoleum where tens of thousands of victims of the 1936-39 civil war that brought him to power are also laid to rest.

Spain's deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo speaks to journalists at parliament before a vote on the Socialist's government's plans to move the remains of former dictator Francisco Franco from the giant mausoleum at "The Valley of the Fallen", in Madrid, Spain, September 13, 2018. REUTERS/Sergio Perez

The bill had the backing of the ruling socialists, leftist Podemos and smaller regional parties and passed with 176 votes in favor, but there were 165 abstentions and two against.

The Valley of the Fallen site near Madrid was described by a senior Podemos leader last month as “the last standing monument to fascist dictatorship in Europe”.

But the plans to move Franco’s remains have divided Spanish society. Several of his descendants issued a statement last month expressing their “firm and unanimous” opposition to the exhumation.

The statement said the family hoped the Benedictine order in charge of the site, which is marked by a 152 meter (500 ft)-tall cross, would prevent the state’s “vengefulness”.

The government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hopes Franco’s exhumation will help settle grievances from the period of his rule that still cast a shadow over the country.

“It’s about time,” Nicolas Sanchez-Albornoz, 92, who worked on the construction of the mausoleum after being sentenced in the 1940s to six years’ forced labor for student activism against the Franco regime, told Reuters.

“Spanish society has evolved. The government won’t be able to change its mind now.”

Sanchez-Albornoz escaped in 1948 with the help of colleagues in France before fleeing to Argentina. He permanently returned to Madrid in 1991.

“Every time I drive past, I look up to see if the cross is still there,” he said.

As many as 500,000 combatants and civilians died in the Spanish civil war. During Franco’s 1939-1975 rule, tens of thousands of his opponents were killed or imprisoned.

Past political crimes were pardoned as part of Spain’s transition to democracy in the late 1970s, fostering resentment among some families of victims.

Many hope to win permission to unearth remains of war dead at the Valley of the Fallen and in dozens of unmarked graves throughout the country, and give their loved ones what they consider a proper burial.</s>MADRID — The Spanish Parliament voted on Thursday to exhume the remains of Francisco Franco, the former dictator, from the underground basilica that he had built near Madrid, intensifying a debate over his legacy that continues 43 years after his death.

The vote paves the way for the body to be moved before the end of the year, but it will not end disagreements about Franco’s place in history, nor will it resolve the question of what to do with his burial site, known as the Valley of the Fallen.

Franco had the site built, in part with forced labor, to honor those who “fell for God and Spain” in the Spanish Civil War, and it became one of Europe’s largest mass graves, with the remains of at least 33,000 people. Most had fought for Franco in the war, which lasted from 1936 to 1939, but the monument also contains the bones of many of his Republican opponents, dumped there in anonymity.</s>Spain”s government approves legal changes to remove remains of former dictator Francisco Franco from mausoleum</s>SPANISH LAWMAKERS HAVE approved a decree by the Socialist government to exhume the remains of late dictator Francisco Franco from his mausoleum near Madrid.

General Franco, who ruled Spain with an iron fist from the end of the 1936-39 civil war until his death in 1975, is buried in an imposing basilica carved into a mountain-face around 50 kilometres outside of Madrid.

The decision to move Franco’s remains from the monument was approved by a vote of 172 in favour and two against in a vote today.

164 MPs abstained, including members of the centrist Citizens Party and the conservative Popular Party (PP).

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who came to power in June after toppling his conservative predecessor, made removing Franco’s remains from the grandiose monument in the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) one of his priorities.

“Justice. Memory. Dignity. Today Spain takes a historic step… today our democracy has become better,” he wrote on Twitter.

The mausoleum was built by Franco’s regime between 1940 and 1959 – partly by the forced labour of political prisoners – and holds the remains of around 37,000 dead from both sides of the civil war, triggered by Franco’s rebellion against an elected Republican government.

Franco, whose Nationalist forces defeated the Republicans in the war, dedicated the site to “all the fallen” of the conflict in an attempt at reconciliation, but only the graves of of Franco and Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the far-right Falangist party which supported Franco, are marked.

Victims’ relatives and activists have campaigned against it because forced labour was used in its construction, and because it keeps Franco’s tomb in a prominent location, near the basilica’s altar.

The site was long used as a place to pay tribute to Franco on the anniversary of his death, but that was stopped by a 2007 law.

The Valley of the Fallen in Spain Source: DPA/PA Images

Many on the left are repulsed by its existence, comparing it to a monument glorifying Hitler.

Others, often on the right, insist the Valley of the Fallen is just a piece of history whose critics have twisted its true meaning.

In parliament on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo called for the end of the “extraordinary anomaly” of having a former dictator “exalted” in a state mausoleum.

“There will be no respect, no honour, no harmony as long as Franco’s remains are in the same place as his victims,” Calvo said.

She recalled that parliament had already approved a non-binding motion last year wjocj called for Franco’s remains to be removed from the mausoleum, but the motion was ignored by the former conservative government of Mariano Rajoy.

Rajoy’s government condemned Francoism but had blocked previous attempts to exhume the dictator’s bones.

The Socialist government has indicated the body would be exhumed by the end of the year.

Franco’s family has fiercely opposed the decision, which has divided Spain and opened old wounds.

The family has said it would if necessary “take care” of Franco’s remains which was taken to mean they will take them to a family vault in Madrid.

According to Calvo, if the family refuses to transfer his remains there, the government will pick a spot to rebury him.

The Francisco Franco Foundation, which receives state funding despite some calls to end it, has pledged to legally fight any moves to exhume Franco’s remains.</s>Spanish lawmakers on Thursday approved a decree by the Socialist government authorising the exhumation of late dictator Francisco Franco.

The sensitive decision to move Franco's remains from his vast mausoleum near Madrid was approved by a vote of 172 in favour, two against and 164 abstentions.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who came to power in June, has made removing Franco's remains from the monument in the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) near Madrid one of his priorities.

"Justice. Memory. Dignity. Today Spain takes a historic step... today our democracy has become better," Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

General Franco, who ruled Spain with an iron fist from the end of the 1936-39 civil war until his death in 1975, is buried in an imposing basilica carved into a mountain-face just 50 kilometres (30 miles) outside of Madrid.

Built by Franco's regime between 1940 and 1959 -- in part by the forced labour of political prisoners -- the monument holds the remains of around 37,000 dead from both sides of the civil war, which was triggered by Franco's rebellion against an elected Republican government.

In parliament on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo called for the end of the "extraordinary anomaly" of having a former dictator "exalted" in a state mausoleum.

"There will be no respect, no honour, no harmony as long as Franco's remains are in the same place as his victims," Calvo said.

The Socialist government has indicated the body would be exhumed by the end of the year.

Franco's family has fiercely opposed the decision, which has divided Spain and opened old wounds.</s>The Valley of the Fallen. Photo: AFP

A decree authorising the exhumation of late dictator Francisco Franco from his tomb in the Valley of the Fallen monument near Madrid was approved in Spain´s congress on Thursday.

The controversial move to transfer Franco's remains from the monument was tabled by the new Socialist government and was approved by a vote of 172 in favour and two against.

The vote drew 164 abstentions by lawmakers from the conservative Popular Party and centre-right Ciudadanos.

"Justice. Memory. Dignity. Today Spain takes a historic step... today our democracy has become better," Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on Twitter after the vote.

Sanchez, who seized power in June after tabling a vote-of-no-confidence in Mariano Rajoy, had vowed to tackle the problem of Franco’s grave and transform the Valle de los Caidos into a place of healing and reconciliation.

General Franco, who ruled Spain with an iron fist from the end of the 1936-39 civil war until his death in 1975, is buried in a huge basilica carved out of the living rock on a hillside 50km (30 miles) northwest of Madrid.

It's eerie interior is reached through airport-style security gates past a “museum shop” into a vast vaulted and domed space with black marble floors and walls lined with faded apocalyptic tapestries. Helmeted militaristic statues keep a watchful eye over worshippers and sword-bearing angels stand sentry to chapels dedicated to the armed forces.

The basillica was hewn out of the living rock by Republican prisoners. Photo: AFP

The complex also includes a Benedictine abbey and the monks are still responsible for maintaining the site. Mass is held on Sundays.

A giant granite cross, reaching a height of 150 meters (500 ft) crowns the complex and is visible for miles on a clear day from vantage points in the capital.

It is controversial not least because it was built using the forced labour of political prisoners during the 19 years it took to build.

Republican prisoners were drafted in to dig the site out of the granite mountainside where they lived in work camp conditions on site. Many died during construction before it was finally completed in 1958. Estimates range from 15 (according to regime officials) to 27,000.

 

 It also stirs emotions because within its crypts are contained the remains not only of those solders who died fighting for Franco but also those who were killed by Francoist forces while defending the Republic – an estimated 50,000 corpses in all.

Yet, the only two graves that are marked are those of Franco and Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the far-right Falangist party, whose graves lie either side of the altar and have fresh flowers placed on the tombstones daily.



 Franco's tomb is always laid with fresh flowers. Photo: AFP

The site has served as a pilgrimage site for Francoist supporters, who staged annual tributes to the late dictator on the anniversary of his death on November 20, until the Historical Memory Law put a stop to it.

But in recent months, since the Socialist government announced their plans to exhume Franco, it has again attracted visitors to say a final goodbye to El Claudillo and visitor numbers soared over the summer.

Campaigners have lobbied for its destruction, arguing that such a monument to fascism has no place in a modern democracy. Germany, for example, would never allow such a tribute to Hitler.

Relatives of those who died on the Republican side have lobbied for the removal and return of their loved ones remains.

Some have called for the entire site to be blown up while others insist it would be enough if it was transformed into a centre for reconciliation that provided an accurate account of its history.

"We believe that the State is subjecting the dictatorship's victims to a form of mistreatment and humiliation by obligating them to pay through their taxes for dictator Francisco Franco's tomb, which is sustained through public funds," the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory (ARMH) has told The Local.

The removal of Franco from the Valley of the Fallen more than 40 years marks the culmination of Spain's struggle to remove Francoist legacy and symbolism from public places.

The Historical Memory Law, introduced in 2007 under the socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was passed in an attempt to heal the wounds of the past, and banned public symbols that honoured the dictator and his supporters.

While street names have been changed and statues of Franco removed from public squares, the most symbolic memorial of the era has, until now, remained untouched.



 This statue of Franco was removed from the city of Santander in 2008. Photo: AFP

In parliament on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo called for the end of the "extraordinary anomaly" of having a former dictator "exalted" in a state mausoleum.

"There will be no respect, no honour, no harmony as long as Franco's remains are in the same place as his victims," Calvo said.

She recalled that parliament had already approved last year a non-binding motion calling for Franco's remains to be removed from the mausoleum but the motion was ignored by the former conservative government of Mariano Rajoy.

Rajoy's government condemned Francoism but had blocked previous attempts to exhume the dictator's bones.

The Socialist government has indicated the body would be exhumed by the end of the year.

Franco's family has fiercely opposed the decision, which has divided Spain and opened old wounds.

The family has said it would if necessary "take care" of Franco愀remains which was taken to mean they will take them to a family vault in Madrid.

ANALYSIS: Digging up Franco: why Spain still can't decide what to do with the dictator's body



 Dictator Francisco Franco in his open coffin after his death on 20 November 1979. Photo: AFP

According to deputy PM Calvo, if the family refuses to transfer his remains there, the government will pick a spot to rebury him.

The Francisco Franco Foundation, which receives state funding despite some calls to end it, has pledged to legally fight any moves to exhume Franco's remains.

READ ALSO: Spain plans truth commission on civil war and Franco's dictatorship</s>MADRID — Spanish lawmakers have backed a government plan to open the tomb of Gen. Francisco Franco and relocate his remains from a controversial mausoleum built in the former dictator’s name.

Franco was buried in 1975 in the Valley of the Fallen, a shrine he ordered built 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of Madrid and topped with a 150-meter cross.

In August, Spain’s new centre-left administration of Pedro Sanchez approved legal amendments to a 2007 law to allow the exhumation.

On Thursday the royal decree passed by 172 in favour and 2 votes against in a largely symbolic vote in the lower house or the Congress of Deputies.

There were 164 abstained votes, from the centre-right Citizens and most of the Popular Party conservatives.</s>MADRID: Spanish lawmakers on Thursday approved a decree by the Socialist government authorising the exhumation of late dictator Francisco Franco.

The sensitive decision to move Franco´s remains from his vast mausoleum near Madrid was approved by a vote of 172 in favour, two against and 164 abstentions.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who came to power in June, has made removing Franco´s remains from the monument in the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) near Madrid one of his priorities.

"Justice. Memory. Dignity. Today Spain takes a historic step... today our democracy has become better," Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

General Franco, who ruled Spain with an iron fist from the end of the 1936-39 civil war until his death in 1975, is buried in an imposing basilica carved into a mountain-face just 50-km outside of Madrid.

Built by Franco´s regime between 1940 and 1959 -- in part by the forced labour of political prisoners -- the monument holds the remains of around 37,000 dead from both sides of the civil war, which was triggered by Franco´s rebellion against an elected Republican government.

In parliament on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo called for the end of the "extraordinary anomaly" of having a former dictator "exalted" in a state mausoleum.</s>Spanish Parliament votes to exhume Franco from monument he had built

MADRID — The Spanish Parliament voted Thursday to exhume the remains of former dictator Francisco Franco from the underground basilica that he had built near Madrid, intensifying a debate over his legacy that continues 43 years after his death.

The vote paves the way for the body to be moved before the end of the year, but it will not end disagreements about Franco’s place in history, nor will it resolve the question of what to do with his burial site, known as the Valley of the Fallen.

Franco had the site built, in part with forced labor, to honor those who “fell for God and Spain” in the Spanish Civil War, and it became one of Europe’s largest mass graves, with the remains of at least 33,000 people. Most had fought for Franco in the war, which lasted from 1936 to 1939, but the monument also contains the bones of many of his Republican opponents, dumped there in anonymity.

“There is neither respect, nor honor, nor justice, nor peace, nor concord as long as the remains of Franco are kept in the same place as the victims,” Carmen Calvo, the deputy prime minister, said in Parliament before the vote. “A dictator cannot be exalted: that is the summary of this debate.”

Parliament approved the exhumation, 172-2, with 164 abstentions, and the two who voted against were reported to have done so in error. The two main center-right opposition parties refused to take part in the vote, and the conservative Popular Party plans to appeal the decision before the Constitutional Court.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a socialist, promised the exhumation soon after becoming prime minister in early June, having ousted Mariano Rajoy and his Popular Party from power in an unexpected vote of no confidence in Parliament. It is not clear where Franco’s body would be reburied.

The debate also has heightened public interest in the Valley, which welcomed more than 60,000 visitors in August, a monthly record. Among them were people who came to pay homage to the dictator and to give a fascist salute before his tomb.

A small association called Movement for Spain has called on citizens to protest the exhumation. The group is headed by Pilar Gutiérrez, whose father was a government minister under Franco.

On the other hand, a few hundred people have gathered weekly in central Madrid to urge the new government to give greater recognition to the victims of Franco, in accordance with the Law of Historical Memory that was approved in 2007, under a previous socialist government.

Sánchez has promised to revive the law, which had been deprived of state funding under Rajoy’s conservative government. One of the measure’s main goals is to help finance the opening of more than 2,000 mass graves across Spain, which date from the civil war.</s>MADRID—Spain’s parliament approved a law Thursday to exhume the remains of Francisco Franco from a monumental basilica, paving the way for his disinterment as soon as later this year.

The initiative has unearthed divisions about whether reburying the former dictator in a lower-profile site will help heal the wounds of Spain’s modern history or reopen them.
The Spanish Congress of Deputies approves the decree to allow the government to exhume the dictator Francisco Franco's remains from the Valle de los Caídos.