- Title: Franco death anniversary marked amid controversy over exhumation
- Date: 19th November 2018
- Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (FILE - OCTOBER 25, 2018) (REUTERS) ANTI-FRANCO PROTESTERS MARCHING PAST THE ALMUDENA CATHEDRAL DEMONSTRATING AGAINST PLANS BY THE FRANCO FAMILY TO BURY HIM THERE IF THE GOVERNMENT GOES AHEAD WITH ITS PLANS TO EXHUME HIS BODY FROM THE VALLEY OF THE FALLEN ANTI-FRANCO PROTESTERS CHANTING IN SPANISH "KEEP THE CRIMINAL OUT OF THE CATHEDRAL" SIGNS READING IN SPANISH, "MADRID WITHOUT FRANCO OR FRANCOISM" AND "BURY THE DICTATOR WELL"
- Embargoed: 3rd December 2018 16:14
- Keywords: Francisco Franco fascist dictator dictator Spanish dictator Valley of the Fallen Almudena Cathedral exhumation Franco
- Location: MADRID, HENDAYA & SAN LORENZO DEL ESCORIAL, SPAIN
- City: MADRID, HENDAYA & SAN LORENZO DEL ESCORIAL, SPAIN
- Country: Spain
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00597B7FBB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS CONVERTED 4:3 MATERIAL
Far-right supporters of Francisco Franco may be commemorating the death of Spain's dictator Francisco Franco in the Valley of the Fallen where he is buried on Tuesday (November 20) for the last time as Spain's Socialist government prepares to go ahead with the exhumation of the general.
Supporters of the fascist leader will be holding a mass at the basilica in the state-funded mausoleum, a site which has long been a destination for far-right groups in Spain.
The Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez got parliamentary approval to remove Franco's body in September as part of plan to turn the site into a place to remember the civil war rather than glorify the dictatorship.
The government's plan has sparked anger from supporters of Franco and his family says they will bury him in Madrid's Almudena Cathedral where they have a crypt if the body is removed.
Families of the tens of thousands of his opponents who were killed or imprisoned during his near four-decade rule oppose his burial at such an emblematic site and have taken to the streets in protest.
The government also opposes a transfer to the Almudena Cathedral and hopes the exhumation will help settle grievances from the period of his rule that still cast a shadow over the country.
As many as 500,000 combatants and civilians died in the Spanish civil war.
The monument at the Valley of the Fallen, with its towering 150-meter cross, was built by Franco himself in 1959.
The founder of Spain's fascist Falange party, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, is also interred there. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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