Spain’s Supreme Court Rules Franco’s Remains Can Be Exhumed by Government

(Bloomberg) -- Spain’s Supreme Court rejected a bid by Francisco Franco’s family to block the transfer of the late dictator’s remains from a mountainside mausoleum to a cemetery outside Madrid, handing a victory to the ruling Socialist party.

Judges unanimously turned down the family’s appeal in its entirety, the court said in an emailed statement Tuesday, without providing further details about the decision. The family had argued that if the body was to be exhumed they should be allowed to bury him in a private tomb they own in the Almudena cathedral in central Madrid.

The decision is a boost for acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as he gears up for yet another election in November, Spain’s fourth in as many years. Hobbled by a lack of support in parliament for his minority government to push through legislation, Sanchez had championed the cause of having Franco removed from the “Valley of the Fallen” basilica outside the Spanish capital.

“Today we are seeing a great victory for Spanish democracy,” Sanchez said on Twitter. “The determination to repair the suffering of the victims of the Franco regime always guided the government’s action.”

Removing Franco, who ruled Spain for nearly half a century after winning a bloody civil war, has been a longtime goal for the Socialists, who argue that the tomb glorifies his triumph.

Franco died in 1975. In the two decades before his death, he oversaw construction of the monument hewn from a mountain northwest of Madrid, where a giant stone cross towers over the church where his body was eventually laid to rest.

Electoral Campaign

Acting Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said the government will try to transfer Franco’s body to a cemetery in El Pardo, a northern suburb of Madrid, as soon as possible so that it does not interfere with the electoral campaign.

“We will carry out the sentence -- which is a sentence that in effect confirms the previous ruling - as fast as we can once we’ve overcome the last procedures that are left to do,” Calvo said.

The family had argued that Mingorrubio cemetery in El Pardo is more susceptible to vandalism whereas the Almudena is one of the best protected locations in the country, El Pais reported, citing a report filed in court by three security experts employed by the family. The government argued the opposite -- that relocating Franco’s body in central Madrid could lead to security risks.

The family may still have some options to try to block the move. Juan Chicharro, president of the Francisco Franco National Foundation, told Bloomberg in March that the foundation would consider taking the fight to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if necessary.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charlie Devereux in Madrid at cdevereux3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Charles Penty, Todd White

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