I can quite understand that many people felt like throwing up as they read, watched and listened to the live media coverage of the spectacle made of the exhumation of the remains of General Francisco Franco from the Valle de los Caídos. An operation which, in the name of democratic decency, should have consisted of the most discreet removal possible of a dictator from his mausoleum, ended up turning into almost a state funeral since it was given a dignity that it didn't deserve and a ceremony that was nothing less than a disgrace for Spain. Francoism has achieved an unexpected, tragic and undeserved victory at the hands of a Socialist government which, while busy trying to capitalize electorally on the relocation of the dictator's bones, forgot about the dignity of a democratic country that is necessary in an act of this nature. The Spain of the dictator, in black and white, was recreated for a few hours in colour through the unprecedented tribute to him that the Valle de los Caídos and the Cemetery of Mingorrubio offered to us, the dumbfounded citizens.
Certainly, in any of the countries in our neighbourhood this macabre scene would not have been possible. You only have to see how other dictators met their ends. Didn't anybody think that using a helicopter with a Spanish coat of arms painted on it to transport the remains was an undeserved public tribute? Wasn't there anything more discreet than the pompous helicopter used by the Spanish royal family on many of its trips? Why were there, present for the occasion, members of the Spanish government, a Socialist justice minister impervious while the entourage farewelled the coffin with calls of "Long live Spain! Long live Franco!" between countless floral wreaths, fascist chants, the Franco-era flags with the eagle, the presence of both Tejero father - leader of the 1981 attempted military coup - and Tejero son in the role of officiating priest, stiff-arm salutes, soldiers giving military salutes to Franco's grandson as in the past, the standard of the house of the Generalísimo draped over the coffin... All of the past, which we thought had gone forever, repeating itself over and over on television stations all around the world.
Because, supposedly, the whole thing was about ending an anomaly like the Valle de los Caídos - that was how they sold the idea for months. If that was the goal, they should immediately sack the event's scriptwriters because their failure was absolute. The shame felt by those who suffered under the Franco regime and their families must at the moment only be comparable to that of those who, knowing Pedro Sánchez, imagined it would turn out like this. A defence of Francoism in prime time, a dictator who has had not one but two state homages. And between the two events, the terrible sum of 44 years of a naive belief that Spain was something else. How easy it would have been easy to carry out the move to the Mingorrubio cemetery at night, and discreetly.