| Relatives of late Spanish leader Francisco Franco carry the coffin after the exhumation at The Valle de los Caidos (The Valley of the Fallen) |
Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco’s remains were exhumed on Thursday from a state mausoleum outside Madrid where they had lain since his death in 1975, for reburial in a private family vault.
The acting Socialist government had long sought to remove his bones from the Valley of the Fallen, a huge monument built on Franco’s orders and which contains the remains of combatants from both sides of the three-year civil war he unleashed in 1936.
Franco’s legacy still divides Spain and its political parties.
Following are reactions to Thursday’s transfer, which an El Mundo poll this month showed 43% of Spaniards favoured and 32.5% opposed.
Carmen Calvo, acting Deputy Prime Minister:
“The exhumation of Franco’s remains should make us reflect on what it means for our country’s own image and for democracy. Young people should understand that we can never again be without democracy.”
“We are the country with the second-highest number of disappeared people and that is unacceptable in a full democracy like ours.”
“In due course, the Valley of the Fallen will be a monument to honour, to the memory of the people who are there, and finally to justice for everyone, for both sides.”
Pablo Iglesias, leader of left-wing party Unidas Podemos:
“Today, no party has the right to talk about victory or to take credit. No justice has yet been done for (Franco’s) victims. Today is the day to thank the associations of victims and the remembrance groups that have pushed and will continue to push for dignity and justice.”
Albert Rivera, leader of centre-right party Ciudadanos:
“Sixty-five percent of Spaniards… did not live and suffer under Franco. The historic day was the day the (post-Franco) constitution was approved.”
“The bones of a dictator who died 44 years ago should not be a government’s priority in my opinion. The only silver lining is that (acting Socialist Prime Minister) Pedro Sanchez will stop talking about Franco’s bones.”
Franco’s oldest grandson, Francisco Franco y Martinez Bordiu:
“I feel a great deal of rage because they have used something as cowardly as digging up a corpse, using a body as propaganda and political publicity, to win a handful of votes before an election.”
Onlookers in cemetery where remains are due to be reburied:
Mari Carmen, in her 50s, from Madrid:
“They should leave him in peace. It is Spanish history, and the dead should be respected. He has been dead for 45 years and this is totally surreal.”
Jorge Alvarez, 24:
“I think what the government is trying to do is outrageous. I am here to protest and to prove that a quite big proportion of Spaniards are against what the government is trying to do.”
Former leader of Catalan independence movement Carles Puigdemont:
“It’s taken them 44 years to get Franco out. And it has been eight years since a commission of experts first issued their recommendation on this wonder of National Catholicism that is the Valley of the Fallen. Let’s see how long it takes to remove Franco’s designated heirs.”
Socialist former prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero:
“Today is the day that Spanish democracy is becoming a more perfect democracy.”
Ian Gibson, historian and expert in Spanish Civil War and Franco:
“Franco has been an ogre in a disgusting mausoleum. Today is the day of liberation.”
Baltasar Garzon, former judge who tried to open an inquiry into Franco’s crimes:
“Today an historic barbarity comes to an end.”
Emilio Silva, chairman of the Association of Historical Memory, the main national organisation campaigning for Franco’s victims:
“The removal of the body of the dictator from the Valley of the Fallen marks the first time that General Franco’s biographical and symbolic journey … is forced to obey an order from a democratic society, after 80 years of uprising.”
“The 1,500 kg gravestone that crowns his tomb is like the plug in a drain that can flush out the enormous number of structures and infrastructures that have survived throughout these 40 years of post-Franco political culture.”