Madrid (EFE).- The remains of the founder of the Falange, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, will be exhumed early today from their location next to the main altar of the Basilica of the Valley of the Fallen, where they have remained since the enclosure 64 years ago, for its transfer to the San Isidro cemetery.
The extraction of the coffin will be consummated discreetly, with the temple closed to the public, only in the presence of the relatives and the workers in charge of raising the great slab that covers his grave and without journalists, in an operation that will comply with one of the sections of the Democratic Memory Law of 2022.
The prior of the Benedictine abbey, Santiago Cantera, will pray a response before the coffin leaves the mausoleum heading to the San Isidro cemetery in Madrid, where after cremation the remains will be deposited along with those of other relatives, such as his brothers Miguel and Pilar .
Process agreed with the family
The entire process has been undertaken in agreement with the family and has been exempt from the enormous media expectation and political controversy that in 2019 accompanied the exhumation and subsequent transfer by helicopter of the dictator Francisco Franco, also buried next to the main altar of the basilica since 1975. .
The new Democratic Memory Law 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 may lie, as a place of recognition, commemoration, remembrance and homage to the victims buried there” .
And he adds: “Any mortal remains that occupy a prominent place in the enclosure will be relocated.” This is the case of José Antonio Primo de Rivera and before that it was the case of Franco.
Although there was the legal possibility of keeping his remains in one of the crypts attached to the temple, thus removing them from their prominent location, the family opted to take them to a Catholic cemetery, given that the regulations consider all burials in the enclave as a civil cemetery.
Moreover, the descendants anticipated any government action for the relocation and as soon as the regulation was approved they communicated their intention to exhume it, both to the prior of the Valley of the Fallen and to the Community of Madrid, at the same time that they requested the works permit. to the City Council of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.
The amount budgeted for the removal of the 3,500-kilo granite tombstone that covers the grave and its replacement with six black marble slabs similar to the one on the floor that surrounds it amounts to 8,630 euros.
The remains have passed through various locations
The remains of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, shot by the Republic at the beginning of the Civil War, in 1936, have passed through various locations throughout history.
The founder of the Falange was first buried in Alicante, but in 1939 his coffin was moved to El Escorial in a procession on foot that lasted ten days until its final destination in the chapel of the kings of the monastery.
Twenty years later, in 1959, the remains were moved again, this time to the Cuelgamuros basilica, coinciding with the inauguration of the site ordered to be built by Franco to perpetuate the memory of those who fell “in our glorious crusade” under an enormous cross. of stone of 150 meters.
The dictator had asked his relatives for permission to take them to the new location, from which they will leave today for the fourth time.
The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, assured on Thursday that this transfer represents “one more step in the redefinition” of the Valley of the Fallen so that there “no person, no ideology that evokes the dictatorship is glorified.”
This is a complex process, provided for in the Democratic Memory Law, which covers various areas, from the new status of the Benedictine community of the monastery, to the transformation of the site into an interpretation center on Francoism.
All this without forgetting that in Valle de Cuelgamuros lie the remains of 33,833 people, combatants from both sides of the Civil War, a third unidentified, and that 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 transfer of José Antonio Primo de Rivera alters the peace of San Isidro
The announcement of the transfer of the mortal remains of José Antonio Primo de Rivera to the San Isidro cemetery in Madrid has broken the peace that is breathed in the cemetery this weekend with the bustle of workers finishing off the preparations and the commotion of journalists.
The remains of José Antonio Primo de Rivera will rest from today in a grave in the San Isidro cemetery, the oldest in the capital of Spain.
Members of his family already lie there, in three burials, including Miguel Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, Franco’s minister and brother of José Antonio, his uncle Fernando Primo de Rivera and his sister Pilar.