Spain's Opposition Call for Exhumation of Franco

 

Spain's PSOE main opposition party announced earlier this week that it wants a debate in Congress on the exhumation of the remains of dictator Francisco Franco and Falange founder José Antonio Primo de Rivera, who are both buried inside the basilica at the Valley of the Fallen.

A measure was filed in Congress by PSOE deputy Odón Elorza, who also wants lawmakers to approve turning the site, which is located outside of Madrid, into a place of reconciliation in memory of all the victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

The PSOE document also states that Franco's remains should be turned over to his family while Primo de Rivera should be buried at a site where no public exaltations could be held.

The 'Val de los Caidos' is located in the Cuelgamuros Valley in the Sierra de Guadarrama, near Madrid, and took 18 years to build. Less than a year after it's inauguration on April 1st 1959, Pope John XXIII declared the underground crypt a basilica.

General Franco remains the only person not to have died during the civil war to be buried in the valley.

The current conservative Partido Popular government has yet to take any action based on a report with recommendations on the Valley of the Fallen, which was commissioned by the previous Socialist government.