Spain to move Franco's remains after court gives go-ahead

Government says transfer of body to municipal cemetery will occur as soon as possible

The remains of Francisco Franco are to be moved from the state mausoleum in which he was buried to a municipal cemetery to lie alongside the former dictator's wife, after Spain's supreme court ruled in favour of exhuming his body.

The ruling on Tuesday is likely to be the final chapter after decades of controversy over Franco's burial place. Removing his body from its tomb in the Valley of the Fallen memorial near Madrid, where he was placed after his death in 1975, has been a priority of the Spanish Socialist Workers' party (PSOE) since it came to power in June last year.