Spain
Spain
Posted on Apr 24, 2023
Primo de Rivera: Spain exhumes fascist Falange leader
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The remains of Spanish fascist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera have been exhumed from a mausoleum and moved to a less-prominent cemetery in Madrid.
The move is part of an effort by the government to tackle the legacy of the country's civil war and dictatorship.
Primo de Rivera was executed at the start of the 1936-1939 conflict, over his links to rebels who had carried out a coup against the elected government.
His modern-day supporters clashed with police outside the cemetery.
"The exhumation of Primo de Rivera is good news for democracy," tweeted Ione Belarra, minister of social rights in Spain's leftist coalition government.
"The fascists have to be taken out of mausoleums and off the streets," she added.
Primo de Rivera's body was buried in four other sites, before being moved in 1959 to the Valley of Cuelgamuros (previously the Valley of the Fallen), a huge mausoleum in the mountains north of Madrid.
The structure was built by the dictator Gen Francisco Franco, who was also buried there after his death in 1975.
Both men were interred near the main altar of the monument's basilica. After a legal battle, Franco was exhumed in 2019 by the then-Socialist government.
The move is part of an effort by the government to tackle the legacy of the country's civil war and dictatorship.
Primo de Rivera was executed at the start of the 1936-1939 conflict, over his links to rebels who had carried out a coup against the elected government.
His modern-day supporters clashed with police outside the cemetery.
"The exhumation of Primo de Rivera is good news for democracy," tweeted Ione Belarra, minister of social rights in Spain's leftist coalition government.
"The fascists have to be taken out of mausoleums and off the streets," she added.
Primo de Rivera's body was buried in four other sites, before being moved in 1959 to the Valley of Cuelgamuros (previously the Valley of the Fallen), a huge mausoleum in the mountains north of Madrid.
The structure was built by the dictator Gen Francisco Franco, who was also buried there after his death in 1975.
Both men were interred near the main altar of the monument's basilica. After a legal battle, Franco was exhumed in 2019 by the then-Socialist government.
Primo de Rivera: Spain exhumes fascist Falange leader
Posted from bbc.com
Fascism
World History
Spain
Posted 1 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Felix Bolaños, minister for the prime minister's office, said Monday's exhumation went "one step further" in converting the monument into a site that did not glorify the dictatorship.
According to the Democratic Memory Law, the community of Benedictine monks which currently manages the Cuelgamuros site will have to leave. The community's priory head - who sought to block the 2019 exhumation of Franco - has said that "it will not be easy" to remove them.
The political opposition has criticised the exhumation, casting it as a ploy by the prime minister to mobilise voters ahead of May's local elections.
Madrid's mayor said the move interested "all those who understand politics as opening up the wounds of the past rather than trying to create a future for all of us."...
..."Felix Bolaños, minister for the prime minister's office, said Monday's exhumation went "one step further" in converting the monument into a site that did not glorify the dictatorship.
According to the Democratic Memory Law, the community of Benedictine monks which currently manages the Cuelgamuros site will have to leave. The community's priory head - who sought to block the 2019 exhumation of Franco - has said that "it will not be easy" to remove them.
The political opposition has criticised the exhumation, casting it as a ploy by the prime minister to mobilise voters ahead of May's local elections.
Madrid's mayor said the move interested "all those who understand politics as opening up the wounds of the past rather than trying to create a future for all of us."...
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