Franco leaves the monument | Spain

The Spanish government has decided that the remains of dictator Francisco Franco (photo, 1892-1975) would be exhumed on June 10 from the Monument to the Valley of the Dead and buried in a cemetery in the city of El Pardo, Madrid. According to the vice-president of the executive, the Socialist Carmen Calvo, the procedure will be held behind closed doors and without public announcement. "It's not a show," he said. In any case, he continued, family members may attend the exhumation and subsequent burial. The initiative to remove Franco from the Valley of the Dead was announced by President Pedro Sanchez a few days after he took office. Since then, the dictator's family has filed lawsuits against him. Similarly, the president of the Francisco Franco Foundation, Juan Chicharro, has already announced that next week he would present an appeal to the Supreme Court to prevent the exhumation.