MADRID: Spain’s Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended the exhumation of the remains of dictator Francisco Franco while it considers an appeal from his family against the move, which divides opinion in a country still conflicted about the nationalist regime.

Spain’s Socialist government had planned to move the remains on Monday from the opulent mausoleum near Madrid to a more discreet state-run pantheon but the plans have been fiercely resisted for nearly a year by Franco’s heirs.

The court said in a statement it had decided unanimously to suspend the exhumation to avoid “harm” that could be caused if it was ultimately found that his remains should not have been moved.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government has made transferring Franco’s remains a priority since he took office in June 2018, arguing the country could not “continue to glorify” the dictator.

The government said in a statement it was “convinced” that the court will ultimately reject the family’s appeal when it gives a final verdict “in the coming months”.

Franco, who ruled with an iron fist from the end of the 1936-39 civil war until his death in 1975, is buried in an imposing basilica carved into a mountain at the Valley of the Fallen, 50 kilometres outside Madrid. A 150-metre cross towers over the site.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2019