There's a common misconception that Franco was a fascist. More so he was a conservative nationalist & staunch defender of the catholic faith in Spain. Ultimately he was a far right dictator but despite Germany's involvement with the condor legion (which was basically Hitler/Goering testing the luftwaffe out before WWII) Franco & Hitler didn't particulalry get on & Franco did as much he could to keep Spain out of WWII. He executed a lot of people though, & banned various regional dialects/languages under his centralisation policies, therfore hated in much of Spain. On a football front, The relationship between the Franco regime & Real Madrid makes for interesting reading, especially the conspiracies surrounding the signing of Di Stefano.