- Title: Flowers and wreaths delivered at cemetery ahead of Franco re-burial
- Date: 24th October 2019
- Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (OCTOBER 24, 2019) (REUTERS) PEOPLE DELIVERING WREATHS TO MINGORRUBIO CEMETERY WREATHS SET UP MAN DELIVERING FLOWERS THROUGH GATE POLICE OUTSIDE WREATHS SET UP OUTSIDE VAN PEOPLE WALKING WREATHS THROUGH GATE CLOSE-UP OF POLICE OFFICER WIDE SHOT OF CEMETERY GATE VARIOUS OF PRIEST AT GATE POLICE INSIDE CEMETERY PAN FROM POLICE TO MEDIA STAGE MORE OF POLICE AND OFFICIALS AT GATE CAMERAS ON MEDIA STAGE VARIOUS OF POLICE IN STREET BEHIND MEDIA STAGE
- Embargoed: 7th November 2019 08:16
- Keywords: Spain Francisco Franco Francisco Franco exhumation Valley of the Fallen Spanish Civil War Spanish politics Franco burial Mingorrubio
- Location: MADRID, SPAIN
- City: MADRID, SPAIN
- Country: Spain
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001B2GHSUF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Officials finished last-minute preparations for the re-burial of the late dictator Francisco Franco at the Mingorrubio Cemetery in Madrid, Spain on Thursday (October 24).
Individuals carried flowers and wreaths through the gates of the cemetery as police and media stood by, waiting for Franco´s remains to be exhumed from the Valley of the Fallen in San Lorenzo de el Escorial, a little over 60 kilometres (37 miles) northwest of Madrid.
The exhumation ceremony is due to begin at 10:30 local time (0830 GMT) and, with media barred from witnessing it, will be attended by a select few: Justice Minister Dolores Delgado, a forensics expert, a priest, and 22 of Franco's descendants.
They include his oldest grandson Francisco Franco, who labeled the operation - and its low-key nature - a political ploy by the governing Socialist Party.
Franco led nationalist rebels backed by Hitler and Mussolini to victory in the 1936-39 civil war which killed around 500,000 people, then ruled Spain in autocratic fashion until his death in 1975. Democracy returned to Spain in the following years, a period known as the Transition.
In government since mid-2018 and facing a national election next month, the Socialists have long sought to exhume his remains from the Valley of the Fallen, a huge monument built on Franco's orders and which contains the remains of combatants form both sides of the war.
The Socialists won backing for the decision to move his remains from a divided parliament and the Supreme Court ratified it last month after dismissing a challenge from Franco's descendants.
The government estimates the move will cost up to 63,000 euros ($70,000). - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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