After both the acting minister of justice, Dolores Delgado -socialist-, and King Felipe VI, signed the document for its mandatory publication in the Official State Gazette, the granddaughter of the dictator Francisco Franco, Carmen Martínez-Bordiú, is officially Duchess of Franco. She has even saved €2,750 euros in fees related to inheritance tax, since it is the first transmission of the duchy since its creation. As paradoxical as it may seem, things that affect the Franco family in Spain always go slowly: the dictator is still buried in Valle de los Caidos and the noble title created by King Juan Carlos, in 1975, for Carmen Polo [Franco´s wife] after his death for "its exceptional circumstances and merits" remains fully in force. All in order.
They say that when Pedro Sánchez's PSOE got the government, they tried to end the Duchy of Franco, but failed. He must not have tried as hard as with other things though, and perhaps because of this and the certainly low informative profile attached to the issue, we have just known about it some days ago. Some are silent because they agree with it, and with the title still being in existence, and others because it is more comfortable to keep silent than to report such an anomalous and embarrassing situation. In the midst of this silence, the paper press has been devoted to other things apparently less risky and compromising. Editorials? Positioning from luxury columnists? Few, very few.
In Madrid, only Podemos or Izquierda Unida have questioned what would happen in Germany if there was a Duchy of Hitler. A certainly rhetorical question because nobility titles are exclusive to a monarchy, which does not apply in this case, and because in Europe this kind of nonsense does not occur. They care too much about institutional ridicule and have too many bad memories from the fascism that ravaged the continent.
What is more surprising is that now, 44 years from the creation of the duchy, the Spanish government itself has not asked the King for the abolition of the Duchy of Franco. Or, even more surprising, that Felipe VI has not done it on his own initiative, as a service against the apology of fascism.