Anglo-Spanish journalist and writer, John Carlin, says that this week's exhumation of the remains of dictator Francisco Franco explains a lot about the current state of democracy in Spain and, indeed, the Spanish mentality. In a conversation on Catalunya Ràdio this Saturday, Carlin says he wasn't aware till recently how "very little" is taught about the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship in the country's schools, which means there is "a great deal of ignorance".
"The other great tyrants of the twentieth century were not treated like Franco, they weren't placed in a hero's tomb for 44 years. Germany has spent the last 70 years apologizing every day for Nazism," says the journalist. Carlin also explains that in Spain, "people seem unable to have a neutral and totally impartial viewpoint" and that while in other countries "history unites people", in Spain it "divides them". "There is no event, or figure or battle that unifies the country," the writer notes, "and that is so different from say, the UK".
Carlin emphasizes that the exhumation of Franco has made a major impact, even greater than that of the Supreme Court sentences for the Catalan independence leaders, and the subsequent protests and unrest, in the media in the UK, France, Germany and the US, but that the majority of people were perplexed and astonished when they saw television images of people chanting "Long live Franco!" "In Europe in particular, that looks horrific," says the writer.
After seeing all this, says John Carlin, it's easy to understand that Francoism still has an important presence in the Spanish state and on its streets, and that, as the journalist says, "Spain is not a consolidated democracy."