Madrid (EFE) for halting work.
The Administrative Litigation Chamber of the high court has issued an order, advanced by the SER and to which EFE has had access, which inadmissible the appeal of both parties against the decision of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) to lift the suspension precautionary measure of the planning license for the rehabilitation of the accesses to the crypts.
Legal sources explain to EFE that after this decision nothing prevents undertaking the exhumation works, although the decision is in the hands of National Heritage since there are two scenarios.
National Heritage can start the works now or it can wait for Madrid’s Contentious Administrative Court number 10 -which processes this process- to resolve the merits of the matter and rule on whether to grant the license for the works of exhumation fail to comply with the rules of the San Lorenzo de El Escorial City Council.
The Supreme Court’s decision on exhumations is final
National Heritage sources have told EFE that the Supreme Court’s position is final because it does not admit an appeal and they assure that it agrees with this public body in charge of managing the Valley of the Fallen, renamed Valle de Cuelgamuros after the Law of Democratic Memory.
In addition, the same sources emphasize that the exhumation works resumed at the beginning of December were not stopped pending the ruling of the Supreme Court and, in fact, during these months they have continued with the previous work of preparing the soil, lighting and removal of ornamental objects.
This entire process began in 2016 when a judge from San Lorenzo de El Escorial recognized the right of a family to exhume and transfer the bodies of their relatives wherever they chose.
They are the brothers Lapeña Altabás, Manuel and Antonio Ramiro, shot in 1936 by the Francoists, buried in Calatayud (Zaragoza) and later reinterred without family permission and surreptitiously in the Valley of the Fallen in 1959.
In June 2021, the San Lorenzo de El Escorial City Council granted National Heritage the planning license for these works, but the Association for Reconciliation and Historical Truth appealed this measure because it considered that this would influence the “need to respect the sacred repose eternal” of the deceased and their families.
Madrid suspended the urban planning license for the rehabilitation of the accesses to the crypts of the Basilica
The Contentious Administrative Court number 10 of Madrid suspended in November of that year the urban planning license for the rehabilitation of the accesses to the crypts of the Basílica del Valle de Cuelgamuros to carry out the exhumations of the place.
The judge made this decision on the understanding that “the damage that could be caused is evident if actions are taken before the final sentence is pronounced, since the original construction would have disappeared.”
A year later, the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) lifted the suspension when upholding the appeal of the State attorney against the court order, but the decision of the autonomous court was appealed in cassation by the Association, in addition to the Franco Foundation and a private individual.
Now, the high court ratifies the decision of the TSJM and clears the way to unblock the works, which remain in the hands of National Heritage.