THE remains of fascist dictator Francisco Franco were exhumed from the colossal Valley of the Fallen mausoleum on the outskirts of Madrid today to be reburied in a family crypt.

Cameras and demonstrations were banned for the event, with workers and 22 members of the tyrant’s family the only people allowed to be present — though several hundred fascists rallied nearby, chanting “Viva Franco” and waving flags and symbols from his 1939-75 dictatorship.

The Communist Party of Spain welcomed the decision to remove him, but noted that “we will not bury Franco definitively until we carry out the political, social and economic transformations demanded by the majority.”

It was a moment to reflect on “the survival of Franco within the oligarchy” that has ruled Spain since 1978, it warned, saying it was “not a time for euphoria or celebrations” while “tens of thousands [of victims of Franco’s regime or the brutal civil war in which he overthrew Spanish democracy between 1936 and 1939] remain buried in ditches and graves, hundreds of fascist symbols remain in streets and public buildings and dozens of companies have not acknowledged benefiting from seizures and slave labour.”

Communists would not “participate in the circus” around Franco’s exhumation created by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s desire to use the removal as electoral propaganda — elections are due on November 10 — and by a media operation that “builds an equidistant story with supporters and detractors, in which the body of the dictator serves as a mere fetish to divert attention from the regime’s crimes.”