When friends or family come to Spain to visit and ask me to name the sites they should see in and around Madrid, they’re always surprised when I put a monument to fascism near the top of the list. But there’s no denying it, El Valle de los Caídos, or the Valley of the Fallen, the resting place of dictator Francisco Franco, is an awe-inspiring place. You can see it from miles away, a 150-meter-high stone cross – one of the world’s largest – rising up out of a rocky hillside north of the capital. Beneath the cross a huge esplanade gives a view over a strangely peaceful, wooded valley. Go on a clear day and the blue sky is a breathtaking backdrop to the scene. Go there in rain or sleet and … [Read more...] about Spain wrestles with Franco’s resting place
General Franco
Spain turns right, but where’s the far right?
Viewed in a certain light - and especially through a myopic leftist lens - the centre-right Popular Party's landslide victory on the anniversary of Franco's death could be seen as an ironic twist of fate, a disquieting rise of the phoenix: The party was, after all, founded by a former minister in Franco’s government and many of its elderly voters were supporters of the regime. Now the PP, led by Mariano Rajoy (who, ironically enough, was born less than 100 kilometres from Franco's birthplace in Galicia in north-western Spain), will have sweeping powers to pass laws and institute reforms. In the run-up to election day, no one wanted to make too obvious the link between the dates - … [Read more...] about Spain turns right, but where’s the far right?