A Spanish army captain has been suspended for having his company blessed in front of the former mausoleum of dictator Franco, near Madrid.
"The captain, head of the company, has been suspended and an investigation has been opened," the army said on Thursday, without providing further details on the sanction and without specifying whether it was temporary or permanent.
A video broadcast on Telegram
Broadcast on Telegram by a group of soldiers dubbed "Ciudadan@s de uniform" (Citizens in uniform), this "video of shame", as this group called it, shows several dozen soldiers in uniform kneeling on the steps of Franco's old mausoleum.
One of them holds the unit flag.
Facing them, a monk in a white cassock blesses them.
"Ciudadan@s de Uniforme" claims that this captain had organized a march near the former mausoleum of Franco "so that the flag of the company (there) would be blessed", and that he had "cancelled all the permissions requested" by members of the company.
Franco's body exhumed
Located about fifty kilometers from Madrid, the Valle de los Caidos basilica was Franco's mausoleum until the government of socialist Pedro Sanchez exhumed his remains and transferred it to a cemetery north of Madrid in October 2019.
Surmounted by a huge cross, this monumental mausoleum was built on Franco's orders by Republican prisoners after the bloody Civil War (1936-39) won by the Francoists.
The site has long been a gathering place for those nostalgic for Francoism, although since 2007 and a law passed by a previous left-wing government, these meetings are prohibited.
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