Spain exhumes the remains of the fascist founder as supporters applaud and sing

Spain on Monday dug up the body of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the fascist Falange movement that supported the Francoist regime, and removed it from a mausoleum carved into a mountainside near Madrid as sympathizers gave fascist salutes. A handful of supporters gathered outside the gates of the complex formerly known as the Valley of the Fallen made the gesture and held up banners saying “José Antonio is present” or shouted “Long live Spain”. Police struggled to hold back a larger crowd of about 150 Falange supporters gathered outside the San Isidro cemetery in southern Madrid. The exhumation is part of a plan to convert the complex built by Franco into a memorial to the 500,000 people killed during Spain’s 1936-39 civil war. Presidency Minister Felix Bolaos on Friday hailed the exhumation as another step in giving the valley new symbolism.

The son of dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, who governed Spain from 1923-1930, José Antonio was shot by firing squad in November 1936 by left-wing In 1939, Franco's coffin was paraded 500 kilometers (300 miles) from Alicante to San Lorenzo de El Escorial, a town near Madrid where Spain's royals are buried. His remains were moved again on the completion of the Valley of the Fallen monument 20 years later and buried under the altar of the basilica, where he would join him on his death in 1975. Franco, a conservative general, and Primo de Rivera, a flamboyant playboy, had little love for each other, according to Franco's biographer, Paul Preston. His death allowed Franco to eliminate a rival and take control of the Falangists, subsuming them to a broader far-right movement that supported his dictatorship. The government is carrying out works in the mausoleum to permit access to the crypts where the remains of 34,000 people, many of them victims of Franco's regime, are buried anonymously, allowing families to identify their relatives.