The exhumation and reburial of the remains of late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled the country from 1939 until his death in 1975, will take place on October 24, the country's government said in a statement on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2019) The exhumation and reburial of the remains of late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled the country from 1939 until his death in 1975, will take place on October 24, the country's government said in a statement on Monday.
In late September, the Supreme Court decided that the dictator's remains could be exhumed without issue. Later, acting Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said that the remains would be reburied by October 25. Members of the Franco family filed an appeal to the court's decision, but it was rejected.
"On Thursday, October 24, at 10:30 a. m. [08:30 GMT], the Spanish government will begin the exhumation of the remains of dictator Francisco Franco from the basilica in the Valley of the Fallen in accordance with the 2007 law on historical memory," the statement said.
After being exhumed, Franco's remains will be reburied at the Mingorrubio El Pardo cemetery, located in the area north of Madrid, the government said.�
According to the statement, the exhumation and reburial of Franco's remains will be held in the presence of the dictator's family and Spanish Justice Minister Dolores Delgado.
The exhumation was one of the first decisions Pedro Sanchez's socialist government made after coming to power in June 2018. In August of that year, the government adopted a decree that amended the 2007 law on historical memory to say that the Valley of the Fallen memorial monument should only house the remains of people who died in the Spanish Civil War and not those of the late dictator, whose government oversaw thousands of executions.
The Franco family opposed the measure and proposed, as the only alternative, that the remains be moved to the crypt of Madrid's Almudena Cathedral, where the dictator's daughter and son-in-law are buried. The authorities refused this option and decided to rebury Franco at the El Pardo cemetery alongside his late wife.�
