Why is Spain transforming its Franco monument?

The Valley of the Fallen is a divisive symbol of Spain's past, and one its current government is trying to change.

It's a monument near Madrid, which heralds the era of the country's former dictator General Francisco Franco.

This week the government announced that it wants to transform the place to hold the remains of people killed on both sides of its civil war.

So why the controversy?

More than half a million people died during the civil war of the 1930s.

An estimated 150,000 were killed by Franco's regime, which ended with his death in 1975.

But public opinion is divided over his legacy.

Earlier this week, Spain's deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo said the monument will remain, but as a civil cemetery protected by the national heritage.

The initiative is part of a draft bill proposed by the left-wing coalition government, dubbed the "Democratic Memory Law".

The bill will also finance the unearthing of mass graves where victims of the civil war and the Franco dictatorship were buried.

It'll also prevent publicly funded institutions from glorifying the dictatorship.

The government has already taken a series of steps to remove symbols from Franco's era.

Last year, Franco's remains were removed from a massive mausoleum he had built for himself in The Valley of the Fallen.