For all those who suffered at the hands of the Franco regime, the removal of the former dictator’s body from the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) memorial monument is a significant act – a necessary reparation to victims and their families. But to call the exhumation of his remains a definitive break with fascism as it has been widely dubbed in the UK media, is to grossly oversimplify the complicated relationship of a nation with its past.
This is not to undermine the immense symbolic importance of the exhumation of Franco. All the while that his body was in Valle de los Caidos, historical memory was deeply damaged. The site has a complex and bloody history – it was built by Republican prisoners and is now effectively a state-run mausoleum housing the remains of around 30,000 victims of the war, many of whose families do not want them to be there. It has long attracted both tourists and supporters of the former General and his ideology.
To understand Spain’s current relationship with Francoism it is crucial to recognise that the transition to democracy occurred not after violent overthrow or popular uprising against the dictator, but following his peaceful death as an old man in his bed. Whilst the transition to democracy is rightly lauded as an immensely important process, it by no means did away with support for fascism or Francoism in Spain.
