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Spain Marks 50 Years Since Franco’s Death as Rifts Over His Legacy Reopen

Historians warn that weak teaching and politicized narratives are shaping how Spaniards confront the dictatorship.

Overview

  • The center-left government’s 50th‑anniversary events have drawn public attacks from right‑wing parties and Francoist groups.
  • Recent legal milestones frame the dispute, including Franco’s 2019 exhumation and the 2022 Democratic Memory law establishing a victims’ registry and removing symbols.
  • Scholars such as Julián Casanova argue that instruction on fascism is insufficient, leaving younger generations vulnerable to revisionist claims.
  • Cultural programming is intensifying the conversation, with platform retrospectives on the Transition and detailed media reconstructions of Franco’s 36‑day final illness.
  • Polling underscores persistent division, with an October survey finding 21% of Spaniards rating the Franco years as good or very good.