Spain to relocate remains of fascist party founder
The remains of Spain's fascist Falange party founder Primo de Rivera will be exhumed next week and relocated to a more discreet spot, the government said Thursday.
José Antonio Primo de Rivera, who died in 1936, is buried near the altar of a basilica in the Valley of the Fallen, a huge mausoleum near Madrid.
In 2019 the dictator Francisco Franco was exhumed from the same site, which he had made imprisoned political opponents build, and reinterred in a private family vault.
Primo de Rivera's exhumation will take place on Monday, a government source said, adding she could not specify where his remains will be reinterred.
It follows the approval last year of the leftist government's "Democratic Memory" law to tackle the legacy of Franco's 1939-1975 dictatorship and the civil war that preceded it.
The law seeks to strip the Valley of the Fallen mausoleum of its status as a symbol of Francoism and far-right ideology and convert it into a civil cemetery.
It also promotes the search for the remains of victims buried in mass graves across Spain, and declares null and void the convictions and penalties handed down by Francoist repressive bodies over people's political beliefs.
Primo de Rivera was executed in the early stages of Spain's 1936-39 civil war after being found guilty of conspiring against an elected Republican government.
His ally Franco went on to lead the right-wing Nationalists to victory, becoming dictator until his death in 1975.
Honouring those who died or suffered violence or repression during the war and decades of dictatorship that followed has been a top priority for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez since he came to power in 2018.
READ ALSO: Why do many people see Spain's flag as a fascist symbol?
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José Antonio Primo de Rivera, who died in 1936, is buried near the altar of a basilica in the Valley of the Fallen, a huge mausoleum near Madrid.
In 2019 the dictator Francisco Franco was exhumed from the same site, which he had made imprisoned political opponents build, and reinterred in a private family vault.
Primo de Rivera's exhumation will take place on Monday, a government source said, adding she could not specify where his remains will be reinterred.
It follows the approval last year of the leftist government's "Democratic Memory" law to tackle the legacy of Franco's 1939-1975 dictatorship and the civil war that preceded it.
The law seeks to strip the Valley of the Fallen mausoleum of its status as a symbol of Francoism and far-right ideology and convert it into a civil cemetery.
It also promotes the search for the remains of victims buried in mass graves across Spain, and declares null and void the convictions and penalties handed down by Francoist repressive bodies over people's political beliefs.
Primo de Rivera was executed in the early stages of Spain's 1936-39 civil war after being found guilty of conspiring against an elected Republican government.
His ally Franco went on to lead the right-wing Nationalists to victory, becoming dictator until his death in 1975.
Honouring those who died or suffered violence or repression during the war and decades of dictatorship that followed has been a top priority for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez since he came to power in 2018.
READ ALSO: Why do many people see Spain's flag as a fascist symbol?
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