Franco’s family given 15 days to decide burial site
Friday, February 15, 2019 @ 9:30 PM
IF THE family of dictator General Franco does not give the government a decision on where his remains should be placed within the next two weeks, the State will decide on their behalf, says justice minister Dolores Delgado.
The fascist leader, who died in 1975 ending a nearly 40-year reign which started with the Civil War, is currently buried in the Valle de los Caídos (‘Valley of the Fallen’), a huge memorial site, cemetery and tourist attraction which houses the graves of not only victims of the late-1930s conflict, but also victims of the dictatorship itself.
Spain’s government, with the full backing of the European Union, considers that the body of a dictator lying next to those of his own victims is a situation that ‘has no place in a 21st-century democracy’, and passed a Royal Decree, or Bill of Law, allowing it to exhume Franco’s remains and move them to another graveyard.
His surviving family – now in its third generation following the relatively recent death of his daughter Carmen – were asked to state where they wished the body to be placed, but opted to appeal against the transfer.
This was unsuccessful, and they now have until March 1 to inform the government of their choice of location.
In the absence of this, the State will decide on March 2 where to put the dictator’s body.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com