Franco bill divides Spaniards

[Blue_Tires]

Source: BBC

A biting winter cold fills the Valley of the Fallen, a sprawling mausoleum to Spain's Civil War dead, carved out of granite rock.

Overhead, a towering 150-metre (492ft) cross casts a menacing shadow. But the chill is offset by an intense political heat.

"Viva Franco!" chants a large, mixed crowd. "One Spain, one flag! Immigrants out! Spain is Catholic, not Muslim!"

The throng includes elderly women in fur coats, on the arms of diminutive steely husbands with slicked-back hair.

Lines of rosy-cheeked youngsters sport the blue shirts of the Falange, Spain's Fascist Party, while big men - their bellies tucked into bomber jackets - lead the chorus of expletive-ridden chants.

"I lived nearly 40 years of my life under Franco, and I had more freedom then than I have now under democracy," explains 68 year-old Leopoldo de la Torre. "If the Reds had won, Spain would have fallen behind the Iron Curtain."

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7103867.stm

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The quote from de la Torre is a gem...You can see that same mentality from the hardcore 29% that we have here in the U.S.

[Alexander]

1. How could Spain fall "behind" the Iron Curtain?

Wasn't the Iron Curtain a few thousand miles too far east for that?

BTW, I wonder who de la Torre voted for in the last election. I'm guessing it was not Zapatero and the Socialists.

[Joanne98]

2. Immigration is moving everybody to the right!

[franmarz]

3. Franco and todays Spain-

The people of Spain today have more than with Franco-true he regimented the country and ruled with an iron hand, but people were very poor. Today the average Spaniard has more freedom, but also there is more crime, but the good good econony out weighs the poverty of the past.