• The mortal remains of the dictator Franco outside the Valley of the Fallen: from Parliament, free way to exhumation

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March 15, 2019 General Franco will rest next to his wife in a Prado cemetery in Madrid. The remains of the Spanish dictator, which are found in the mausoleum in the Valley of the Fallen, will be exhumed and transferred next June 10th. Spanish deputy premier Carmen Calvo announced this. The remains of Generalissimo will be buried with those of his wife, Carmen Polo, in the cemetery of Mingorrubio, in the Prado district, on the outskirts of Madrid.

The Spanish Parliament had approved in September 2018 the decree that provided for the exhumation of the remains of the dictator Francisco Franco and their removal from the memorial of the Valley of the Fallen, dedicated to the civil war dead. The provision had been presented by the Socialist executive of Pedro Sanchez, and had obtained 172 yes, two no and 164 abstentions.

A decision to modify the Historical Memory Act of 2007 to facilitate exhumation and protect it from any requests by the family of the dictator who opposed the transfer of the remains and announced legal actions against the government.

Died November 20, 1975, Franco is buried in the monumental Mausoleum of the Valley of the Fallen which he himself built near Madrid. The Mausoleum contains the remains of some 32,000 fallen from both sides of the Spanish civil war and was presented by the regime as a place of reconciliation. In fact, however, it remains a symbolic place for the nostalgics of Francoism.