The long-awaited date was announced after Spain’s Supreme Court last month overruled a string of objections from his family, who had tried to halt the exhumation.

On Thursday, the remains will be relocated to Mingorrubio El Pardo, a state cemetery 20km north of the capital, and placed next to those of his wife.

“The exhumation and reburial (of his remains) will be done in an intimate manner with his family present,” Justice Minister Dolores Delgado said in a statement.

Franco, who ruled with an iron fist following the end of the 1936-1939 civil war, is buried in an imposing basilica carved into a mountain in the Valley of the Fallen, 50km outside Madrid.

Moving Franco’s remains has been a priority for the Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez, which has said Spain should not “continue to glorify” the dictator, whose hillside mausoleum is topped by a 150m cross and has attracted both tourists and right-wing sympathisers.

The move has divided opinion in Spain, which is still conflicted over the dictatorship that ended with Franco’s death in 1975.