Will Pedro Sánchez dig Franco up on the anniversary of the Spanish Civil War?
(28/06/2018) Will the socialist Prime Minister do it?
(Originally published: 28/06/2018)
The exhumation of Francisco Franco, Spain’s former dictator, who died 42.5 years ago on November 20, 1975, is now “imminent” or “immediate”, according to comments by the Prime Minister reported in the Spanish press.
The new socialist government is preparing a decree that will order the remains removed in July, to some place that is not the controversial Francoist monument known as the Valley of the Fallen, where Franco is buried alongside José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the Falange. Both are located next to the altar, a spot normally reserved for popes and bishops.
Pedro Sánchez told El País “I believe a mature democracy like ours, a European one, cannot have symbols that separate Spaniards”. The Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) is set to unearth the remains with or without the support of the Popular Party (PP).
In May last year, Congress passed a bill, with 198 votes in favour, to proceed with the removal. The PP abstained, along with Republican Catalan Left (Esquerra, ERC)—this last party because they believed the measures did not penetrate far enough into Spain’s conflictive past, and then the Rajoy government kicked the bill into the long grass with budgetary excuses.
The Franco Foundation railed on Twitter against the PSOE, accusing it of bringing back “the spectre of hate” because it lost the Civil War 80 years ago. The previous socialist government, under Mr. Zapatero ten years ago, was also preparing to attempt the exhumation, but desisted as political tensions mounted.
Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera recently suggested, to some mockery, that the Valley of the Fallen should be turned into a Spanish version of Arlington, the US national military cemetery established during the American Civil War in the 19th century. “If all they want to do is divide Spain into two sides artificially”, he said: “that’s something else. You can’t do a law like this with one part of Spain against the rest”.
American political symbolism is not lost on Pedro Sánchez. He has also been mocked over the past few days for using the official Prime Minister’s Twitter account to publish stylised photos of himself jogging, playing with a dog—like President Obama—or modelling sunglasses on the official plane while pretending to work, in a manner reminiscent of President Kennedy. Then there were some weird official shots of the PM’s hands, with the message that Mr. Sánchez’s posed finger and thumb gestures were somehow proof of “this government’s determination”.
Nor is the new executive ignorant of the idea of narrative or the importance of timing in politics: the sudden motion of no confidence against Mariano Rajoy was proof of this.
So assuming Franco’s living relatives don’t find a judge to delay the exhumation on some legal technicality, would the new socialist Prime Minister be so bold as to dig up the dictator on July 18, the anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War?