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Spain: the exhumation of Franco and the pre-campaign legislative

The historic verdict of the Supreme Court authorizing the exhumation of former dictator Francisco Franco has cheered the socialist government, which had made it vote in July 2018, as well as the left. But it does not please the conservative forces who despise this decision and consider that there are much more important things to do. Polemic on the background of pre-election campaign.

From our correspondent in Madrid,

This case is symbolic, because according to the socialist government and a good part of the Spanish opinion, the fact that a dictator rests in a megalomaniac basilica built in a mountainous circus is an aberration and a historical anomaly.

It is, they say, a way to consecrate Franco as a great man in his mausoleum, a mausoleum that is incidentally also a mass grave of 33,000 corpses of civil war.

A long and difficult legal and judicial battle

A battle that goes back at least two decades, because it is not the first socialist government that tries to extract the remains of Franco from the Valle de los Caidos, which is the name given to this gigantic basilica. In 2004, José Luis Zapatero had tried, in vain. This time, Pedro Sanchez got a win, the left in general.

And opposite, the resistances remain very strong. The two right-wing parties, the Popular Party and Ciudadanos, believe that the living should be looked after, not the dead. As for Franco's family, she is thinking of filing an appeal with the Constitutional Court and European Justice.

Socialists say they will exhume Franco as soon as possible

The government wants to place it in a discreet cemetery. But we are already in pre-election campaign. The next legislative elections take place on November 10, and already the opponents are racking their weapons, accusing themselves. The right and the left are more polarized than ever.

All think that the exhumation, if it occurs in the coming weeks, will influence this campaign. On the right, it is feared that this symbolic gesture could help mobilize a left electorate that might not go to the polls. The Socialists say that this has nothing to do with it, and that this matter must be settled as soon as possible in order to move on to the elections. In any case, here, never has a dead man made so much noise.

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