Spanish lawmakers approved the Socialist PSOE government’s plan to remove the fascist leader’s body from the Valle de los Caidos mausoleum in September.
The bodies of around 33,000 victims from both sides of the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War are also buried at the site, around 30 miles from the capital city.
But the vast tomb is a cause of anger for relatives of Republicans buried there who fought Franco’s fascist forces.
Thousands of Republican prisoners were also used as slave labour for decades to build Valle de los Caidos, where Franco was buried in 1975 after his four-decade-long dictatorship.
Angry protesters massed outside the Almudena Roman Catholic Cathedral in Madrid on Thursday to demand Franco’s remains are not now moved to the site.
People chanted ‘Criminal out of the cathedral’ and held placards reading “Madrid: Without Franco” and “Justice!”
“I would chuck him in a ditch,” said 74-year-old protestor Gorgonio Ferrero outside the cathedral.
“But not (buried) here.”
Franco’s family has a crypt at the cathedral, where Franco’s daughter Carmen was buried in 2017.
His seven grandchildren want Franco reburied with military honours at the central Madrid landmark.
The Francisco Franco Foundation wants Franco be given a Christian burial at the Madrid cathedral.
But Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s PSOE government wants to avoid Franco’s burial site becoming a rallying point for supporters.
Franco died on November 20, 1975 after a brutal dictatorship saw thousands of political opponents imprisoned or tortured after the end of the Civil War.
The dictator also banned Catalan and Basque from being spoken or written in Spain’s northen regions.
Far-right Franco followers gather for a Catholic mass at Valle de Los Caidos on November 20 each year, giving fascist salutes.
During the conflict, more than 40,000 foreign volunteers travelled to Spain and joined the International Brigade to fight Franco’s forces.
An estimated 4,000 British men and women joined the anti-fascist brigade, with more than 500 of them killed in Spain.
Around 500,000 soliders and civilians died in the war.