Madrid, April 24 (EFE).- The exhumation of the remains of the founder of the Falange, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, from its location on the main altar of the Basilica of the Valley of the Fallen, will be undertaken this morning in an operation designed with the utmost discretion, behind closed doors and without the presence of authorities or the press.
Although the Ministry of the Presidency has not specified at what time the removal of the coffin will take place for its subsequent transfer to the San Isidro cemetery in Madrid, it is expected that the work will be undertaken first thing in the morning and that the entire process, marked by the removal of a granite slab of 3,500 kilos, will be resolved soon.
In the basilica of the renamed Valle de Cuelgamuros, several descendants of Primo de Rivera will be together with the workers in charge of the necessary work to remove the large tombstone that covers the grave where his remains have rested since 1959, coinciding with the inauguration of the enclosure ordered to be built by Francisco Frank.
After the recovery of the coffin, the prior of the Benedictine abbey, Santiago Cantera, will pray a response before the transfer to the San Isidro cemetery, chosen by the family since other relatives of the founder of the Falange are buried there, such as his brothers Miguel and Pillar.
The exhumation complies with the provisions of the Democratic Memory Law of 2022, which prevents the presence of mortal remains in any “preeminent” place of the compound, as is the case of Primo de Rivera and as was the case until 2019 with the dictator Francisco Franco, also buried next to the main altar in 1975.
Franco was transferred to the El Pardo cemetery on October 24, 2019 by decision of the Government, in what was the first step towards the complete “resignification” of the enclave built after the Civil War thanks to the work of thousands of Republican prisoners.
On that occasion, the Government did specify the details of the exhumation process and the transfer of the coffin by helicopter to El Pardo, broadcast live by the press amid great expectation, and after an intense political controversy fueled by the resistance of the family of the dictator to that decision.
This time it was the relatives of Primo de Rivera who requested the exhumation without waiting for the Government to execute the change of location in application of the new norm.
And although the law allowed keeping their remains in the Valley of the Fallen, like those of the more than 33,000 combatants from both sides of the Civil War who rest in their crypts, as long as they left the prominent place they occupy in the temple, their descendants have preferred to take them to a Catholic cemetery.
After the approval of the Law of Democratic Memory, the crypts adjacent to the basilica and the burials have the character of a civil cemetery and the will of the founder of the Falange was to be buried in a sacred cemetery and in accordance with the Catholic rite.