José Antonio Primo de Rivera is no longer in the Valley of the Fallen. The remains of the founder of the Falange have been exhumed this Monday in a process that started at dawn and ended a few minutes before 1:00 p.m. The exhumation has been carried out with the temple closed to the public and without the presence of authorities at the express wish of the family. Although a large group of supporters of the Falange has gathered both at the exit of the renamed Cuelgamuros valley and at the entrance to the Madrid cemetery of San Isidro where the fascist ideologue will be buried for the fifth and, foreseeably, last time.
As happened with Francisco Franco, the exhumation of Primo de Rivera is part of compliance with the Democratic Memory Law of 2022, which establishes that it establishes in its article 54 that in the renamed Valle de Cuelgamuros "only the mortal remains of people who died as a result of the War, as a place of recognition, commemoration, memory and homage to the victims buried there". But few more similarities have been provided by both operations since this Monday there were no helicopters or nostalgic cheers on the main esplanade of the complex.
Despite the discretion claimed by the family, which has limited authorized people to just over 75, it has been known that the work carried out inside the basilica has taken several hours.
The delay has been due to the fact that, after lifting the large granite slab of more than 3,500 kilos that covered the tomb, the workers have found several blocks of brick and concrete of which they were unaware and that were not found in the removal of Franco's grave.
After these works, the prior of the Benedictine abbey, Santiago Cantera, prayed a response before the coffin left the mausoleum for the San Isidro cemetery in Madrid. There, and after their cremation, the remains have been deposited along with those of other relatives, such as his brothers Miguel and Pilar, in some tombs owned by the family that were reconditioned last Friday by employees of the funeral home.
At the gates of the cemetery is where most Francoist and Falangist sympathizers have gathered, including Manuel Andrino, national leader of La Falange. The demonstrators have made fascist salutes and have exalted the leaders of the Franco regime while they tried to break the police cordon, forcing the agents deployed within the operation to intervene.
In line with the protests, the Francisco Franco National Foundation has described the exhumation of the remains as a "ruinous and civil war action by the Government" and has described its president, Pedro Sánchez, as the "undisputed world champion of infamy" for his miserable action.
Some of the concentrates have accused the family of Primo de Rivera of not having "fought" enough to prevent the exhumation, which, moreover, they describe as an electoral measure just over a month before the elections. While another part of the criticism has focused on the central government for having made the exhumation of Primo de Rivera's mortal remains coincide with the 120th anniversary of his birth.
In the Cuelgamuros valley lie the remains of 33,833 people, combatants on both sides of the Civil War, a third unidentified, and there are descendants who want to take care of their relatives; but exhumations have been subjected to numerous obstacles in recent decades, both political and judicial.
Last December, the Government finally resumed work to recover the remains of 118 victims claimed by their families, after a stoppage of several months ordered by a court in Madrid.
The Minister for Territorial Policy and Government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, today highlighted the importance of having carried out this exhumation work with "all the scientific and technical rigor and with all due respect and support for her family." And asked if the chosen date has been determined by the Government or the family, she replied that work has been done with "absolute respect for the family's decisions in the way in which they had to be carried out."
The Second Vice President of the Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, has also spoken, assuring that today "a historical anomaly" is closed, which "would probably not happen in any European country".
From the PP, his campaign spokesman, Borja Sémper, has accused the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, of using the exhumation of the remains of José Antonio Primo de Rivera as a smoke screen on the "real" problems of the Spanish . "It is evident that it is a continuous game using State institutions, a magic game so that we Spaniards stop being interested in issues that really interest us on a day-to-day basis", he has sentenced.
