The intervention has been carried out by the Aranzadi-Atics technical team and is part of the public policies of democratic memory, as well as the institutional commitment to the location, recovery and identification of missing persons, as reported by the Regional Ministry of Presidency, Coordination of Government Action and Local Cooperation.

This action is the fourth exhumation campaign in the cemetery of Ses Figueretes and gives continuity to the work carried out in previous years. In 2024, these interventions allowed the identification of three victims, the first officially recognized on the island of Ibiza. The works have been promoted by the Govern and have had the collaboration of the City Council of Ibiza and the Forum for the Memory of Ibiza and Formentera.

The excavation was carried out by a team of nine specialists in archaeology and forensic anthropology and focused on the opening of three probes, parallel to those carried out in previous campaigns, in a previously defined area based on historical and archaeological studies.

In test pit 1, 22 funerary units corresponding to ordinary burials have been documented, in addition to the recovery of a long weapon projectile, identified as a Spanish Mauser rifle. Test pit 2, the most extensive, has located 48 ordinary burial units and two sets of disarticulated bone remains, including at least three adult skulls with fractures caused by firearms. This same survey has documented part of a burial without funerary treatment and with a different orientation than usual, which could correspond to one of the victims sought, as well as another projectile.

On the other hand, in test pit 3, 30 ordinary funerary units have been identified, as well as part of the jacket of a firearm projectile and several disarticulated bone remains, which will have to be analyzed in depth during the laboratory work scheduled for the coming months.

The forensic anthropology and genetic analyses, which will be carried out in reference laboratories, may allow us to increase the number of individuals compatible with the victims sought and to advance in the identification process.

La entrada Work in Ibiza cemetery concludes with remains of at least three possible victims se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.

• The largest search for Francoist reprisals begins in Ibiza

• Francisco Franco’s dictatorship returns to the debate: the surprising profile of those who defend it today

The work, led by the Aranzadi-ATICS team and made up of nine specialists in archaeology and forensic anthropology, is progressing in several probes open to the space where, according to preliminary studies, victims could be located.

In the first days of the intervention, a long gun projectile -a Spanish Mauser rifle- had already been identified in Sondeo 1, an indication that reinforced the working hypotheses.

In Test Pit 2, the team has located several remains, including a skull of an adult male with fractures compatible with firearm injuries.

These preliminary results are consistent with the findings of previous campaigns carried out in the same cemetery, which allowed, in 2024, the identification of three victims, the first identified on the island of Ibiza: Mariano Castelló Castelló, Bartolomé Costa Serra and Josep Vidal Ramon.

• Eleven bodies of possible victims of Franco’s regime found in Formentera increased to eleven

The work of the V Graves Plan will continue during the next weeks with the objective of delimiting new areas, studying the recovered remains and advancing in the identification process through forensic anthropology and genetic analysis techniques.

«The Government of the Balearic Islands reaffirms its commitment to continue with the work of exhumation and identification of people who disappeared as a result of the Civil War and Franco’s regime, in order to give them a dignified burial,» they said.

Continue reading:

• The president of the Balearic Parliament destroys the photo of a woman shot by Franco’s regime and expels two socialist deputies

• Exhumed three complete skeletons of possible victims of Franco’s regime in Formentera

• Remains of three victims identified in the ‘Campament’ of Formentera

La entrada Another victim of Franco’s regime in Ibiza? Human remains with signs of execution found in Ses Figueretes cemetery se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.

The sociological picture drawn by the CIS is both clear and disturbing: Francoism retains significant sympathies in the Spain of 2025, and these sympathies are concentrated, in a striking way, in two very specific generational extremes.

Young people and Francoism: between historical ignorance and memes

The CIS data point to a first striking group: those under 24 years of age. One out of every five young people between 18 and 24 years of age believes that the Franco regime was «good» or «very good», and this group also has the highest percentage of the population that considers the democratic system to be equal to or worse than the dictatorship: 24.9%, that is, one out of every four.

For Narciso Michavila, president of GAD3, these young people have grown up in democracy and in a digital environment in which «Franco a meme», rather than a clear historical reference. They have no direct memory of the regime, nor do their parents, and that distance facilitates a trivialized view of the past.

• What if Franco did not die on 20N? The theories that continue to divide Spain 50 years later.

Enrique Javier Díez Gutiérrez, Professor of Education at the University of León, stresses that the root of the problem is twofold. On the one hand, he points out that «the first reason is that we are an anomaly with respect to most of Europe. While the vast majority of European democracies (France, Italy and Germany) were built from anti-fascism (due to the defeat of fascism in the Second World War), in Spain it was built from overcoming the past, from oblivion».

On the other hand, he points directly to the educational system: «One of the pending issues is the inclusion of democratic historical memory from 6 to 16 years of age. This is the period through which the entire Spanish population goes through compulsory education and, therefore, the only contact many people have with scientific knowledge». Without a solid formation on Francoism, what Hannah Arendt defined as the «banality of evil» is installed.

Díez explains this with examples from the classroom: «It is not unusual to find students laughing and talking about ‘Franco, ese bro’, or repeating the slogan that ‘with Franco we lived better’. In some schools there are youngsters who sing ‘cara al sol’ by heart at recess. There has been no will to include the Franco era in the educational system and these are the consequences».

Social networks, disinformation and political rebellion

Professor of Sociology at the Complutense University José Antonio Alcoceba agrees that young people are victims of an «erratic educational policy in which Francoism has never been told from a historical point of view,» but adds another decisive factor: the digital ecosystem. The networks, he argues, «construct very reduced visions of reality», and «simple discourses in social networks are very pervasive».

Alcoceba also points to the influence of certain content creators who, without being overtly political, do shape the ideological climate of their audiences: «There are influencers such as Xokas and others like him who, although they do not make politically themed content, do give their opinions and generate a certain breeding ground that favors polarization». At the university, he adds, this polarization has been transferred to the classroom to the point that debates that used to be possible from different positions now lead to «verbal violence».

• The largest search for Francoist reprisals begins in Ibiza

Díez also introduces a socioeconomic element: «As the philosopher Victoria Camps reflects in ‘The society of mistrust’, what young people see is a society that does not offer them a hopeful future. Oxfam shows that the richest 1% has more wealth than 95% of the population as a whole, the future looks worse, inequality increases…. The uneasiness about the future leads you to be fascinated by an idealized past. Antonio Gramsci also said it: the old world is dying, the new one takes time to appear and in the meantime monsters emerge».

This social malaise translates, in part, into political rebellion. Díez puts it crudely: «To be a badass today in high school is no longer to wear a leather jacket or a punk crest, now it is to be a Vox member. This is provocative and makes teachers uncomfortable. To be anti-system for them is to be Vox. Rebellion has changed sides. Before it was 15-M and now it has turned around».

The over 75s: vital memory and nostalgia for order

At the other extreme, those over 75 years of age constitute the other great nucleus of support for the regime. Up to 25.8% of Spaniards born before 1950 rate the years of Franco’s dictatorship as «good» or «very good», the highest proportion of all age groups. Many of them lived their youth and a good part of their adult life under Franco.

The political analyst Ignacio Varela proposes a biographical reading: «If I am now 70 years old and when Franco died I was 20, probably the regime was a happy time for me. I have little faith in these questions formulated in a bare-bones way because they are mixed with personal experiences». Thus, the perception of the regime intersects with memories of youth, job stability or social ascent.

• Pablo Guerrero, the voice of democracy during Franco’s dictatorship, dies

Varela adds that the comparison with current politics also weighs heavily: «There is a very high level of discomfort and rejection of current politics. Anything with which you compare current politics will win out. The current population is convinced that the main problem of Spanish society is politics».

For Narciso Michavila, the phenomenon is reminiscent of what is happening in Russia with the memory of the USSR: «Older people have a better opinion of the communist regime than those who grew up in the 1990s. For them the arrival of capitalism was chaos, and they longed for the security of the Soviet Union. The older ones associate Francoism with an image and values in which they have been raised».

Vox, the militant ultra-right and grandchildren listening to their grandparents

The CIS microdata indicate that 61.7% of Vox voters believe that Franco’s dictatorship was «good» or «very good», compared to 41.6% of PP voters. Santiago Abascal’s party has declined to participate in the commemorative act for the anniversary of the coronation of Juan Carlos I, but one of its members points out about the CIS results: «Grandchildren usually pay attention to what their grandparents, who are sensible people, say».

Neo-Nazi activist Isabel Peralta, 23 years old, offers a portrait of a part of that youth that views Francoism with sympathy, although she herself feels closer to José Antonio Primo de Rivera. She affirms that «we are used to being told from an early stage about Franco as the bogeyman coming for us. My generation has not lived through Franco’s regime and neither have my parents. Showing so much interest in the educational system to generate a vision of Franco in young people ends up backfiring», and adds that it has happened «just as with gender ideology, which is taken as a parody of biology».

How the perception of Francoism has changed in 15 years

Despite this upturn in «sociological Francoism», the overall data continue to be clearly against the dictatorship. In general terms, 6.1% of Spaniards describe the dictatorship as «regular», and the majority, 26.4% and 39.1%, say it was «bad» or «very bad». In parallel, 40.8% of those surveyed believe that the current democracy is «better», while 33.8% believe it is «much better».

The temporal comparison, however, shows a change: in 2008, the CIS already asked about the memory of the Civil War and Franco’s regime, and only 11.2% said that they did not mind one regime over the other (5.3%) or preferred an authoritarian regime (5.9%), while 85.5% considered democracy to be preferable to any other form of government, a higher percentage than today.

• The president of the Balearic Parliament destroys the photo of a woman shot by Franco’s regime and expels two socialist deputies

The writer Manuel Vilas synthesizes the weariness of part of society with the persistence of the subject: «I’m fed up with Franco, you have to invoke the outburst». For him, the fixation with the figure of the dictator is a burden: «If Franco could come back he would die laughing. Imagine that in 1925, people were obsessed by something from 1836. This is the anomaly we live in Spain. This resurrection of Francoism produces an enormous boredom in me. It is metaphysically boring and it is a Francoist revival that takes away our desire for modernity, our desire to look at a country that is among the elite».

La entrada Francisco Franco’s dictatorship returns to the debate: the surprising profile of those who defend it today se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.