MADRID: Spanish lawmakers on Thursday approved a decree by the Socialist government authorizing the exhumation of late dictator Francisco Franco. The sensitive decision to move Franco’s remains from his vast mausoleum near Madrid was approved by a vote of 172 in favor, two against and 164 abstentions. Today Spain takes a historic step… today our democracy has become better,” Sanchez wrote on Twitter. In parliament on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo called for the end of the “extraordinary anomaly” of having a former dictator “exalted” in a state mausoleum. “There will be no respect, no honor, no harmony as long as Franco’s remains are in the same place as his victims,” Calvo said.

Source: Manila Times September 13, 2018 13:30 UTC