Spain’s main ruling Socialist party demanded explanations yesterday from the leader of the conservative People’s Party after Pablo Casado attended a religious service for the late dictator Francisco Franco, whose legacy still divides Spain.
“We consider this an aggression, an absolute irresponsibility,” Hector Gomez, spokesman for the Socialist bench in Congress, told reporters.
“We demand an explanation...whether the leader of the opposition, the leader of People’s Party is endorsing Francisco Franco’s dictatorship,“ he said.
Casado’s party said he had been unaware that the mass in the southern city of Granada, which he attended on Saturday with his family, was one of several services held across Spain to commemorate the 46th anniversary of Franco’s death.
“It was not a mass for Franco, it was a normal mass, and we discovered the following day,“ a spokesman said, declining further comment.
According to a party source, Casado simply walked into a church next to his hotel because he knew he would not be able to go to a mass the following day due to his tight schedule.
The Francisco Franco Foundation thanked him for his presence there but said he had not been invited and could not be held responsible.
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It´s pretty disgusting this FFF is even allowed to exist. I cannot imagine there is a Adolf Hitler Foundation? Or is there?. Ok, Adolf has many millions of deaths behind his name, but even so. A murdererous dictator, big or small, is still a murderer.
As a teenager In the mining town I grew up in I used to chat and spend time with an old socialist who fought with the international brigade in Spain against Franco. He was responsible party for my early political outlook and introduction to Hemingway and Orwell writings. As a kid who had traveled little his descriptions of Spain was fascinating. He also admired and loved the Spanish people. I think he would find this types of politics applauding. In his view as I remember him was to respect other’s opinions and after his war experience to also respect your enemy. His name was Bill Armstrong and died from miners lung infection in his early 60s.