SPAIN: José Antonio Primo de Rivera was the founder of the Falange movement and played a key role in the Spanish Civil War. His body will be transferred to Madrid’s San Isidro cemetery as part of a government campaign against fascist symbols.
Prime Minister de Rivera’s grave is located in a basilica in the Valley of the Fallen, formerly the Franco mausoleum. Far-right activists were enraged when his remains were removed in 2019. Construction of the memorial was forced upon anti-fascist Republican prisoners.
The left-wing government is reburialing Franco’s regime and the fascist civil war victory, and a memorial is being built to recognise all victims of the war. Many partisans are still looking for their loved ones.
Two funeral cars were seen outside the compound, and an operation had begun to exhume and move his remains to San Isidro Cemetery in Madrid, where he will be buried with other family members.
Primo de Rivera’s remains were moved to San Isidro on April 24th, the 120th anniversary of his birth. His remains were interred in a basilica for more than 60 years, part of a massive hillside mausoleum constructed by Franco’s administration after the civil war.
Cabinet Minister Felix Bolanos declared that the exhumation of Franco’s remains was a step in the government’s attempts to deprive the tomb of its role as a representation of fascism and far-right ideology.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s left-wing administration has made it a priority to remember those who lost their lives or endured violence or repression during the civil war and dictatorship.
Primo de Rivera was killed by a Republican firing squad in 1936 in Alicante. He was the father of Miguel Primo de Rivera, who ruled Spain from 1923 to 1930. He will be laid to rest next to the graves of his family.
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