An end to the titles of nobility given by the dictator Franco

Spain’s new law on Democratic Memory comes into effect, abolishing 33 titles of nobility awarded by the dictator Francisco Franco and his successor to loyal lieutenants and members of the dictator’s family. The measure concerns, among others, two of Franco’s grandsons, as well as the descendants of his top generals, ministers and other high-ranking officials.

The law, which recently passed the final parliamentary hurdle in the country’s upper house, states that “honoring people who committed crimes against humanity” amounts to humiliating the victims of Franco’s regime and repeals titles that exempt the civil war and the military dictatorship.

While most of the titles had been awarded by Franco himself to his loyalists in return for their services, five individuals affected by the law had received their titles of nobility from the dictator’s successor as head of state, former King Juan Carlos A, during the first months of his reign after the death of Franco.

Francisco Franco Martínez-Vordio, the dictator’s eldest grandson who inherited the title of Lord of the Meira from Franco’s widow, Carmen Polo, called the removal of the title “nonsense without practical effect” in an interview he gave July in the newspaper El Independiente.

“I will continue to be the Lord of Meira even if the government does not recognize it,” he had declared.

His sister, Carmen Martínez-Vordiu, will be stripped of the title of Duchess of Franco, which Juan Carlos I had bestowed on Franco’s only daughter shortly after the dictator’s death in late 1975.

Others to be stripped of titles are relatives of Falange fascist party founder José Antonio Primo de Rivera and descendants of generals Gondalo Cape de Jano and Juan Yague, who ordered massacres of civilians in Seville and Badajoz respectively.

The law on historical memory

Fourteen years after the Spain adopted its first law on Historical Memory, the new legislation pushed by the center-left government aims to eliminate “loopholes” and cover a wider range of Franco-related victims and crimes.

The said legislation also promotes the investigation and exhumations of victims found in the more than 3,000 recorded mass graves. At least 114,000 civilians were forcibly disappeared during the war and subsequent repression, a court ruled in 2008.

Franco ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975 after leading a military coup against the elected left-wing Popular Front government, resulting in a three-year civil war that claimed 500,000 lives.