The Supreme Court has this week suspended the exhumation of Franco, which was due to take place on Monday.

The Fourth Section of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court unanimously decided to provisionally suspend the exhumation of the remains of Don Francisco Franco Bahamonde, on the grounds of potential harm and public interest.

The ruling states that the suspension is to “avoid the harm that would otherwise be caused to the appellants and, especially, to the public interests incarnated in the State and in its constitutional institutions, which would be seriously affected,” if the remains would have to be returned in the future.

Francisco Franco Bahamonde was a Spanish general and politician who ruled over Spain as Head of State and dictator under the title Caudillo from 1939, after the nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War, until his death in 1975.