Health assures that its authorization is not necessary for the exhumation of Primo de Rivera

The General Directorate of Public Health of the Community of Madrid has informed the family of José Antonio Primo de Rivera that their authorization is not necessary to carry out the exhumation.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
11 October 2022 Tuesday 05:30
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Health assures that its authorization is not necessary for the exhumation of Primo de Rivera

The General Directorate of Public Health of the Community of Madrid has informed the family of José Antonio Primo de Rivera that their authorization is not necessary to carry out the exhumation. The regional authority has argued that there is no health risk, after the request sent by the family of the founder of the Falange to transfer the remains of the deceased from the Valley of the Fallen to another place.

As more than five years have passed since he was buried, the remains are considered cadaveric and, therefore, the approval of the General Directorate of Public Health is not required.

The reaction of the Madrid Department of Health comes a day after the request that the family of Primo de Rivera made for his exhumation. The relatives addressed the Abbot del Valle and Public Health, as well as the San Lorenzo del Escorial City Council, which has confirmed the entry of the application in the municipal registry.

In the statement released by the relatives, it is explained that the intention is to comply with the will of the deceased to be buried in a sacred cemetery in accordance with the Catholic rite, and they recall that the Democratic Memory Law establishes that "the crypts adjacent to the Basilica and the existing burials in it have the character of a civil cemetery”. The family "has already decided" where they will transfer the remains, although they have not specified the place.

In this way, the relatives of Primo de Rivera take the initiative after the approval of the Democratic Memory Law and also after some statements by the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, who recalled that with the rule they would be exhumed from the Valley of the Fallen the Falangist leader and the soldier Gonzalo Queipo de Llano. The decision is explained by the will of the family that the process be carried out "within the strictest family privacy."