Spain's Socialist cabinet has approved a decree allowing the exhumation of the remains of former dictator Francisco Franco from his vast mausoleum, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo told a news conference.
The decree still has to be approved in parliament, where it has the backing of the far-left party Podemos as well as smaller Catalan separatist and Basque nationalist parties.
Critics call the "Valley of the Fallen" site, marked by a 152m-high cross on a mountainside near Madrid, the only remaining monument to a fascist leader in Europe.
The decree reduces the risk of legal claims preventing the exhumation of Franco's remains, including by his descendants.
During his rule, from the end of the civil war in 1939 to his death in 1975, tens of thousands were killed or imprisoned in a campaign to wipe out dissent.
The measure needs to be approved by the rest of parliament, where Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez holds only a quarter of seats, but it is unlikely to be voted down.
"Only the mortal remains of people who died as a result of the Spanish Civil War will lie in the Valley of the Fallen," Deputy Prime Minister Calvo said.
The legislative process to turn the monument into "a place of commemoration, remembrance and homage to the victims of the war" should be finished by the end of the year, Ms Calvo said.
