Spain has taken another step towards dealing with the legacy of the civil war after the government approved the exhumation of the remains of Francisco Franco, which have lain in the Valley of the Fallen mausoleum near Madrid since his death in 1975. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who came to power in June after he ousted his conservative predecessor in a confidence vote, has made removing the late dictator’s remains from the monument in the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) near Madrid one of his priorities. The Spanish government's center-left party, the Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE), is set to pass amendments to the Law of Historical Memory [52/2007] in an upcoming debate next month, deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo said at a press conference at the Palace of the Moncloa on Friday. General Franco, who ruled Spain with an iron fist from the end of the country’s 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 Madrid with a 150-metre (500-feet) cross towering over it. But it is fiercely opposed by Franco's descendants who are refusing to take his remains to the family sepulchral vault in Galicia in northwestern Spain, and the main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) which has warned it will challenge the decree in court.
The Spanish government passes a decree which amends the Historical Memory Law to allow the government to exhume Francisco Franco's remains from the Valle de los Caídos.