Spain marks 50 years since Franco’s death

Half a century after Francisco Franco’s death, rising support for Spain’s far right is reviving his legacy among young voters, prompting official commemorations that warn of fascism’s lingering dangers

PUBLIC OPINION ON FRANCO ERA

More than one in five Spaniards (21.3%) see Franco era as “good” or “very good”, compared to 11.2% when asked similar question in 2000

Good or very good
Bad or really bad
Neutral

Survey by state‑run pollster CIS, Oct 2025. Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding

65.5%
21.3%
6.1%

After overthrowing democratic republic in 1936-39 civil war, Franco ruled Spain with iron fist until his death in 1975

FRANCOISM BY NUMBERS

>500,000
Deaths in Spanish Civil War (1936-39, military and civilian)

100,000-200,000
Deaths from Francoist repression (1939-75)

114,000
Forcibly disappeared people in around 3,000 mass graves across Spain; nearly 9,000 bodies exhumed in recent years

>500,000
Exiled Spaniards. Over 5,000 exiles later died in Nazi concentration camps

>30,000

“Lost Children” of Republican parents taken into state care and adopted by regime-loyal families

~600
Deaths during Transition to democracy (mid-1970s to early 1980s) from terrorism, far-right, and state-linked violence

Sources: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS), Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica (ARMH), U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Complutense University of Madrid, El País, Reuters
Picture: Getty Images
© GRAPHIC NEWS