Moving Franco
Relocating ruler’s body would help Spain heal
Spain needs to achieve closure on the Spanish Civil War that ended almost 80 years ago, and removing the body of the long-dead fascist dictator leader Francisco Franco from its glorifying mausoleum would be a step in that direction.
Spain has attempted for decades to come to terms over the civil war, in which forces on the left and right fought for power. “Generalissimo” Franco emerged as the leader of Spain after a war that is remembered for its brutality. Some 114,000 people remain unaccounted for.
The country is still so paralyzed by the civil war that the United Nations has sent missions there three times since 2013 to pressure the country forward to complete the process of identifying graves and telling the truth aboutFranco’s regime.
During his rule, Franco statues, plaques and monuments sprouted all over the country, and many have been eliminated. Still in existence is themacabre mausoleum near Madrid that glorifies the totalitarian policies under which Franco ruled. A 500-foottall cross dominates the somber scene, a sprawling cemetery for war dead called Valley of the Fallen near Madrid. Franco admirers flock to this park, nostalgiac for his iron-handed leadership, not unlike the way some Russians remember fondly all the goodtimes under Joseph Stalin.
The U.N-sponsored missions have criticized authorities for lacking a national plan to search for missing people, for poor coordination on exhumations, and for outdated maps of graves. They also raised concerns about the inaction of Spanish courts in prosecuting some of the period’s darkestcrimes.
The country is doing something right by creating a Truth Commission to investigate crimes that occurred under Franco up until his death, and now the new center-left government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is trying to follow through on its commitment to remove Franco’s body from its crypt. Exhuming Franco’s body from the mausoleum has become a controversy all of its own, giving the rightists a cause to rally around.
Hopefully, the government of Spain will proceed with the exhumation as promised and find a respectful new grave for Franco that does not needlessly desecrate his memory. And perhaps it will also rededicate the Valley of the Fallen, with the graves of roughly 34,000 fighters on both sides, to the memory of those who died, in faith and war, and proceed with the work of reconciliation.