Pablo Casado attended a religious service for the late dictator Francisco Franco. | EFE

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Spain’s main ruling Socialist party demanded explanations yesterday from the leader of the conservative People’s Party after Pablo Casado attended a religious service for the late dictator Francisco Franco, whose legacy still divides Spain.

“We consider this an aggression, an absolute irresponsibility,” Hector Gomez, spokesman for the Socialist bench in Congress, told reporters.

“We demand an explanation...whether the leader of the opposition, the leader of People’s Party is endorsing Francisco Franco’s dictatorship,“ he said.

Casado’s party said he had been unaware that the mass in the southern city of Granada, which he attended on Saturday with his family, was one of several services held across Spain to commemorate the 46th anniversary of Franco’s death.

“It was not a mass for Franco, it was a normal mass, and we discovered the following day,“ a spokesman said, declining further comment.

According to a party source, Casado simply walked into a church next to his hotel because he knew he would not be able to go to a mass the following day due to his tight schedule.

The Francisco Franco Foundation thanked him for his presence there but said he had not been invited and could not be held responsible.