Spain exhumes remains of fascist leader Primo de Rivera

The founder of the Falange party became one of the pillars of Francisco Franco’s ruthless regime.

The remains of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the Falange party, are being taken from a major basilica for burial in a quiet family tomb as part of Spain’s efforts to stop the glorification of its fascist past.

Monday’s dig comes six months after Spain passed a law aimed at addressing the legacy of the 1936-1939 civil war and the decades of dictatorship that followed.

The party founded by Primo de Rivera in 1933 became one of the pillars of Francisco Franco’s ruthless regime, along with the army and the Spanish Roman Catholic Church.

Primo de Rivera was executed in November 1936 at the start of the war for conspiracy against the elected Republican government.

He was buried in 1959 in the basilica in the Valley of the Fallen, 50 km northwest of Madrid, where the body of former dictator Franco once lay.

Early Monday morning, two black hearses were seen outside the complex.

The remains will be transferred to the San Isidro cemetery in Madrid. Primo de Rivera’s descendants chose April 24 because it falls exactly 120 years after his birth.

Under Spain’s so-called democratic remembrance laws, no figure associated with the 1936 military coup that sparked the civil war may be buried in “a prominent public place”, so acts of tribute or exuberance are avoided.

According to reports from the Spanish newspaper El Pais, a dozen supporters of Primo de Rivera were present.

They did not bring flags or banners, which the law prohibits, but some supporters were heard saying: “José Antonio is present.”

Symbol of Francoism

The basilica, surmounted by a 150-meter high stone cross, and the mausoleum house the remains of more than 30,000 victims from both sides of the civil war.

It is a deeply divisive symbol of a past that Spain still finds hard to digest.

The law passed in October aims to transform the Valley of the Fallen into a place of remembrance of the dictatorship’s dark years.

It also promotes the search for the regime’s victims, who are buried in mass graves across Spain, and annuls the criminal convictions of opponents of the Franco regime.

Right-wing parties believe that the law draws needlessly from the past.

Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox movement, accused the government of “again desecrating graves and unearthing hatred” with the exhumation of Primo de Rivera.

Spain is gearing up for regional and local elections on May 28 and general elections at the end of the year, which polls suggest will be tight.