Falangist groups will gather on Monday at the San Isidro cemetery to pay tribute to Primo de Rivera

They criticize that the exhumation is carried out on the day he would turn 120 and close to the elections on May 28

MADRID, 21 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Several Falangist groups are going to gather next Monday at the San Isidro cemetery to receive the mortal remains of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, who will be exhumed from the Valley of the Fallen that same day.

Although there is no official call, at noon there will be a concentration of supporters of the founder of the Falange, assassinated in 1936 at the beginning of the Civil War, according to sources from the party have indicated to Europa Press.

The forecast is that several hundred people will gather in the Madrid cemetery, located in the Carabanchel district, after the Government announced that the exhumation of the remains of his tomb, located in the Basilica del Valle, will take place this Monday.

The tomb is located right next to the place where that of the dictator Francsico Franco was located, who was also transferred by decision of the Government of Pedro Sánchez in October 2019. His remains were transported by helicopter and relocated to the Mingorrubio cemetery in The brown.

The aforementioned sources refer to the existing malaise in Falangist circles because the Government has made Primo de Rivera's departure from the Valley of the Fallen coincide with the 120th anniversary of his birth, on April 24, 1903. They also criticize that it occurs close to the start of the electoral campaign for the regional and municipal elections on May 28.

They also point out that the Valley of the Fallen has been closed since Thursday night, making it impossible to access the site and a device to divert traffic is already underway. Predictably, the exhumation will take place on Monday first thing in the morning and then the transfer to San Isidro will take place.

In addition to the concentration on Monday, another tribute is scheduled to take place in the coming days at the new location of the remains of José Antonio, son of Miguel Primo de Rivera, who led a coup and ruled Spain between 1923 and 1930.

This will be the fifth burial of the founder of the Falange, who was shot in the Alicante prison in 1936 and buried in a common grave. Two years later his mortal remains were placed in a niche, in the same place. Once the civil war ended, in 1939, he was exhumed again and taken from Alicante to El Escorial.

His coffin was carried on foot by Falangists for 10 days, passed through Aranjuez, traveled down Madrid's Gran Vía and entered the El Escorial monastery on November 30, 1939. There he was received by Franco and buried next to the main altar of the basilica.

Years later, in November 1959, it changed location again, the day before the Valley of the Fallen was inaugurated, and was buried in a place of honor in the Cuelgamuros basilica. He will now be relocated again at the express wish of the family, which anticipated the approval of the Memory Law and asked the Government to leave the Valley.

In this way, his relatives intend to comply with the request of Primo de Rivera himself who left written in his will that he wanted to rest in a Catholic cemetery. Since last October, with the entry into force of the law, the Valley became a civil cemetery.

Regarding possible sanctions that the Government could apply for the tributes to Primo de Rivera, the Falangist parties are convinced that there is no legal basis to sanction them, since they are paying tribute to a victim of the Civil War, as they argue.

The Government has already opened a file on the Falange for various demonstrations that took place on November 20. They point out, however, that the process is on hold and that the Secretariat for Democratic Memory, which reports to the Ministry headed by Félix Bolaños, informed them in March that there was a three-month period --until June-- to gather more information and be able to apply possible sanctions.