EL PARDO: Spain exhumed the embalmed body of Francisco Franco from a grandiose state mausoleum on Thursday, reburying it in more discreet grave in a country still conflicted over the dictator’s decades-long regime.

The carefully-choreographed operation which began inside an imposing basilica in Valley of the Fallen and ended some four hours later at a state cemetery outside of Madrid, was hailed by the government as ending “an insult to Spanish democracy”.

The delicate procedure drew a line under a sombre drama which had threatened to open barely-healed wounds in a nation still divided over Franco’s legacy 44 years after his death.

The diminutive dictator ruled Spain with an iron fist following the end of the 1936-39 civil war and when he died in 1975, his body was laid in a tomb inside the vast basilica at Valley of the Fallen, some 50 kilometres northwest of Madrid.

It was there that 22 of his relatives went on Thursday morning to witness the opening of the grave which has drawn both tourists and right-wing sympathisers.

After removing the heavy flagstone, which reportedly weighed 1,500kgs, the dilapidated casket was secured before being extracted and carried out into the light by eight family members.

It was then transferred to a military helicopter for the brief flight to El Pardo where it was reburied alongside that of his wife in Mingorrubio state cemetery.

Since Prime Minister Sanchez came to power in June 2018, he has made moving Franco’s remains a priority, although the plans were delayed by legal challenges posed by the family.

But with the operation taking place before a Nov 10 election, his rivals have cried foul, with Pablo Iglesias of the radical leftwing Podemos saying Sanchez had unearthed “Franco’s mummy” to win votes.

Spaniards are divided over the exhumation, with 43 per cent in favour, 32.5 per cent against and the rest undecided, according to an El Mundo poll published earlier this month.

Ordered by Franco in 1940 to celebrate his “glorious [Catholic] crusade” against the “godless” Republicans, the Valley of the Fallen monument was constructed over almost 20 years.

Partly built by the forced labour of political prisoners, the site is one of Europe’s largest mass graves, housing the remains of over 30,000 dead from both sides of a civil war that was triggered by Franco’s rebellion against an elected Republican government.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2019