After Franco, Spain will exhume the remains of the founder of the Falange

Spain's left-wing government, which in 2019 exhumed Franco's remains from his monumental mausoleum near Madrid, has decided to do the same with that of the founder of the Fascist-inspired Falange party, buried in the same mausoleum, learned Thursday, April 20 from a government source.

This exhumation will take place on Monday, indicated this source of the presidency of the government, saying not to be able to specify in which cemetery the remains would be transferred.

Son of dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923-1930), José Antonio Primo de Rivera was executed in November 1936, at the start of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) caused by the uprising of soldiers, including General Francisco Franco , against the Republican government.

Franco then ruled the country with an iron fist until his death in November 1975.

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Divided Country

The tomb of Primo de Rivera is located near the altar of the monumental basilica of the "

", surmounted by a cross 150 meters high not far from Madrid, where Franco was also buried until his exhumation in 2019 and his transfer to a more discreet cemetery in the Madrid suburbs.

The exhumation of Primo de Rivera will take place within the framework of a law which entered into force last October, aimed at rehabilitating the memory of the victims of Francoism.

This law, known as "

", stipulates that "

" (that is to say public) to bury "

" of 1936, explained the Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolaños.

In November, the Spanish authorities had exhumed the remains of a Francoist military leader, General Queipo de Llano, from the Basilica of the Macarena in Seville.

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The highest military official in southern Spain at the time, he is held responsible for the thousands of executions that took place after the military uprising that sparked the Civil War, the most famous being that of the poet Federico García Lorca.

Coming to power in 2018, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has made the rehabilitation of victims of the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship (1939-1975) one of his priorities.

” law

, which notably makes the search for the disappeared from the Civil War a “

”, divides in a country where the wounds of the past have not been healed.

The right has promised its repeal if it returns to power in general elections scheduled for the end of this year, the exact date of which is not yet known.

Exhumation of Franco in 2019: the coffin transported by helicopter