Lydia Spencer-Elliott
SPAIN has celebrated 42 years of democracy since the end of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.
According to Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanches, the occasion marked the ‘greatest success of our collective history’.
But alongside the celebration, where those in Madrid took to the streets to wave flags, there has also been some controversy.
A 271-person-strong group, made up by former military, has published a manifesto speaking out against Spain’s coalition government.
In the document, they claimed the Socialist-led parliament was, in fact, a ‘deterioration of democracy’.
In particular, they were concerned by those fighting for Catalan independence.
“I think the letter to the king puts the monarchy in an absurdly uncomfortable situation,” said deputy prime minister Pablo Iglesias in a TV interview.
“If a few Franco-supporting gentlemen think they’re doing the head of state a favour by surrounding him with Francosim, I think they don’t understand that they’ll probably just make more Spaniards feel increasingly like Republicans,” he said.
It comes as a group of ex-air force officers are under investigation for planning violence against those fighting for Catalan independence in a WhatApp group.
In the chat, members described dictator Franco as the ‘irreplaceable one’ and discussed ‘shooting 26 million sons of b*tches’.
“The opinions of these people cannot be seen as representative of the collective to which they once belonged,” assured air force general Gen Miguel Villarroya Vilalta.
