Spain has taken another step towards dealing with the legacy of the civil war after the government approved the exhumation of the remains of Francisco Franco, which have lain in the Valley of the Fallen mausoleum near Madrid since his death in 1975.

The council of ministers voted in favour of the move, which was opposed by the rightwing People’s and Citizens parties. However, the decree only needed a simple majority to pass. The Socialist party of the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, the leftwing Podemos and the Catalan and Basque nationalist parties all voted in favour.

The decree means that after a dispute lasting many years, the removal of the former dictator’s remains will go ahead, probably later this year, despite opposition from Franco’s family.

His grandson, Francisco Franco Martínez Bordiú, said: “The government has taken this opportunistic, cowardly and vengeful decision. This is just a trick to win votes for the left.”

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Pablo Casado, the leader of the People’s party, which emerged from the reformist wing of the old Franco regime, criticised Sánchez for “reopening old wounds” in an effort to “cover up the fact that he is incapable of governing”.

The Citizens party, which is going head to head with the People’s party for the rightwing vote, also criticised the move.

“It seems that some want to return to the fratricidal battles between reds and blues, of confrontation and division, which is what bipartisan politics likes,” said Albert Rivera, the party leader. He claimed this type of politics was as obsolete as “listening to music on cassette or vinyl”.

While the opposition argued the decision would only reopen old wounds, these have never healed for millions of Spaniards.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flowers placed on the tomb of Francisco Franco inside the basilica at the Valley of the Fallen monument. Photograph: Andrea Comas/AP

While Franco has lain in splendour 37 miles (60km) outside Madrid, until recently, an estimated 140,000 of his opponents lay in unmarked graves around the country, buried where they were summarily executed during and after the civil war. The last of these executions was carried out in 1975.

In order to smooth the transition to democracy after Franco’s death, all parties agreed to a “pact of silence”, leaving the crimes of the civil war and its aftermath as unfinished business.

As a result, for decades before and after the transition, the “vanquished” in the civil war have had to live alongside the “victors”, often knowing their neighbours or local mayor are the people who murdered members of their family or confiscated their property.

No one has been prosecuted and, despite plans to establish a truth commission, those who committed crimes under the dictatorship are protected by an amnesty.

There has been no attempt at reconciliation regarding the civil war and it is only in recent years, when the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory was formed in the realisation that the witnesses to this history would soon be dead, that the issue has been addressed and the nation shaken from its collective amnesia.

Every day, fresh flowers are laid on Franco’s grave, but the fact it exists as a monument is seen as an insult to the millions who suffered and were driven into exile by his regime. While it is a crime in Germany to venerate Hitler and the Nazis, in Spain, there is a Francisco Franco National Foundation dedicated to his memory.

The exhumation is expected to be carried out in secret to avoid protests and it is not yet clear where the remains will be reburied. The government has given the family 15 days to come up with a proposal.

However, wherever his final resting place, what the furore about his removal makes clear is that, while the dictator may be long dead, his legacy is very much still with us.