The work of exhumation of victims of the Spanish civil war (1936-39) buried in the monumental mausoleum erected to the glory of Franco near Madrid began Monday, announced the left-wing government.
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“Finally, and perhaps with a lot of delay, Spanish democracy is giving an answer to these victims” and to their families, declared on public television the spokeswoman for the executive of the socialist Pedro Sánchez, Isabel Rodríguez, who clarified that it was for the moment “technical work”.
Launched on the basis of a so-called “Democratic Memory” law adopted at the instigation of the left-wing government, this work begins less than six weeks before the early legislative elections of July 23, including the right, which has promised to repeal this law if it returns to power, is the big favorite.
The purpose of the work is to recover the remains of 128 people who are in the “Valle de los Caídos”, renamed by the left-wing government “Valle de Cuelgamuros”, the Ministry of the Presidency, in charge, told AFP. of democratic memory.
According to the daily El Pais, a laboratory made up of forensic scientists, archaeologists, geneticists and members of the scientific police has been set up inside the imposing basilica, located some 50 km from the Spanish capital.
“It is a task that the government of Pedro Sánchez has been promoting for years with the objective of trying to recover these bodies and return them to their relatives to give them a dignified burial”, indicated the Ministry of the Presidency. .
In the basilica, crowned with a cross 150 meters high, built by the dictator Francisco Franco, rest some 33,000 fighters who belonged to the two sides of the civil war: the Francoists and the Republicans. Among the latter, many were taken there without their families even being informed.
Franco’s remains occupied a privileged place in the altar of the basilica from his death in 1975, until October 2019, when the government of Pedro Sánchez transferred them to a cemetery in the suburbs of Madrid.
Last April, the remains of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, a fascist party which was one of the pillars of the Franco regime, were also exhumed and transferred to a civilian cemetery.
Last October, the “Democratic Memory” law came into force, one of Mr. Sánchez’s priorities, which aims in particular to extract the remains of the victims of Francoism and to transform the old mausoleum into a place of memory of this tragic period.
The leader of the People’s Party (right), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, confirmed last week that he would repeal this law if he comes to power after the next elections, as the polls predict, believing that it rekindles wounds and divisions in Spanish society.
The Ministry of the Presidency replied on Monday that “it (was) not about politics, but simply a question of humanity”.