MADRID (AP) — The Spanish government's attempt to exorcise the ghost of Gen. Francisco Franco could backfire if relatives reinter the late dictator's embalmed body under Madrid's cathedral.
The Franco family crypt at Almudena Cathedral is centrally located among tourist hotspots. Opponents worry that having the general's remains there would make Madrid an extreme right pilgrimage destination.
The government was aiming for the opposite when it decided earlier this year to have Franco exhumed from the Valley of the Fallen, a glorifying mausoleum he had built with forced labor as a tribute to the Spanish Civil War.
But Franco's heirs appear to have reclaimed the upper hand with the plan to have him reburied at the cathedral. The proposal is weakening the government's resolve to have his body dug up.
