Spain: Cheering and waving Spanish flags, supporters of Francisco Franco assembled in Madrid yesterday to mark 30 years since the death of the Fascist dictator.
To cries of "Viva Franco!", around 2,000 people, including old soldiers from the army that kept Spain in a vice-grip for four decades, declared allegiance to their hero and denounced the present Socialist government.
"Only after died did they manage to pull him down from his horse," one speaker told the cheering crowd in a reference to the removal of the last statue of the dictator in Madrid earlier this year.
"Spain is dying, or rather, Spain is being murdered [by the Socialists] ... we are called to defend our Spain," the speaker added, to more cheers and Fascist salutes.
With a Socialist government in power since March last year, Spain is now discussing historically thorny issues such as more autonomy for its regions and a new school curriculum which downgrades religious study.
Those changes, and the approval this year of gay marriage, have enraged some of the old guard who backed Franco, as well as others who are nevertheless proud of the country's now well-established democracy.
Several thousand gathered on Saturday evening at a remembrance Mass at Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen), in the mountains 50km (30 miles) north of Madrid, site of the imposing mausoleum where Franco is buried. Some were vociferous in their criticism of the Socialists.
"This is not a government, it's a disaster," said Bernardo Cantarel, a 78-year-old former soldier attending the Mass. " was someone who didn't do anything which wasn't to the benefit of Spain and Spaniards. Anything else they say about him are tall stories," he said.
Human rights group Amnesty International this year estimated 30,000 people died or disappeared in the Spanish civil war and under Franco's rule. Many victims were buried in mass or secret graves.
The Socialists are still working on new legislation which would attempt to provide a more balanced account of Spanish history and repair the damage caused to victims of the Franco era, justice minister Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar said.
"We want a symbolic reparation of history and of the dignity of so many people who suffered persecution for exercising what are today fundamental rights ... we want to do this in the broadest way, respecting all the feelings involved," he told SER national radio. - (Reuters)