After the death of the 1st Duchess of Franco, succession of the ducal title with accompanying dignity has been requested by her eldest daughter María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú y Franco.
[1] Under Spanish nobiliary law, her eldest daughter Maria is first in line, but does not succeed automatically; with the application to the Crown and the issue of the Royal Letter of Succession, and after an announcement period of thirty days, succession only legally enters into force after a tax is paid.
In 2018, the far-left Izquierda Unida party sent a letter to King Felipe VI asking that title of Duke or Duchess of Franco be repressed as a violation of Spain's Historical Memory Law but the power to make or unmake nobility resides solely in the Spanish monarch and is not covered by that law.
[2] The Dukedom was granted to the heir apparent, María del Carmen Martínez-Bordíu y Franco, the eldest daughter of the late Duchess, on the same year, as published in the Official State Gazette on 4 July 2018.
[3] The title was abolished on 21 October 2022, under the purview of the Law of Democratic Memory.