The Spanish Academy of History has bowed to public pressure and will amend the official biography of Francisco Franco to make it clear he was a dictator.
The current entry was written by Professor Luis Suárez, who specialises in medieval history – and happens to be a member of the Francisco Franco Foundation, a charitable organisation setup by the dictators heirs to “guard his historic memory”. Really. Tax breaks and everything. I’ve written before on “what happened to Franco’s family“.
Prof Luis wrote that Franco “ran an authoritative regime but not a totalitarian regime, as he had political backing that was organised into a Movement and which was subject to the Laws of the State”. Bollocks of course, inserted into the history books by Franco’s family and supporters, but it was the official bollocks and that’s what goes into the kids history books.
Anyway, the relevant section will now be rewritten to make it clear that el Caudillo was a fascist military dictator in complete and utter control of the State, upon whose whims people lived or died. Well, at the very least they’ve promised to add the word “dictator” in there.