Spain’s armed forces have suspended a military captain after his troopers had been seen kneeling in entrance of a memorial to former dictator Francisco Franco.
Footage shared on social media confirmed round 30 troopers from one unit apparently paying homage in entrance of the Valley of the Fallen mausoleum.
The clip was posted on Telegram by a pro-democracy military group referred to as “Ciudadanas de uniforme” (Residents in Uniform). It confirmed the troopers kneeling with rifles of their arms on the steps in entrance of the basilica as a priest blessed them.
The video’s contents has been broadly condemned and a number of political events have demanded an evidence from Spain’s Protection Minister Margarita Robles.
Below a 2007 regulation, Spain has additionally banned any gatherings outdoors the mausoleum.
On Thursday, the ministry confirmed that the unit’s captain had been dismissed inside hours of the video showing on social media. An investigation has additionally been launched into the incident.
The grandiose mausoleum previously served as Franco’s burial place and has at all times been revered by his excessive right-wing followers in Spain.
In 2019, the Socialist authorities exhumed Franco’s stays and eliminated them to a cemetery in northern Madrid.
The transfer got here after outcry from Franco’s victims and their descendants, who contemplate the mausoleum an affront to Spain’s standing as a contemporary democratic state.
1000’s of unidentified political prisoners who labored on the development of the mausoleum close to Madrid are additionally buried within the Valley of the Fallen.
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