Spain Exhumes Remains of Fascist Leader Primo de Rivera

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Facts

  • On Monday, the Spanish government dug up and reburied the remains of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, who founded the fascist Falange movement that supported Gen. Francisco Franco's dictatorship.1
  • The move, coming 120 years after his birth, removed the body from a lavish basilica where the remains of Franco once rested, and transferred it to San Isidro cemetery in Madrid — where he will be laid alongside other family members.2
  • This decision came six months after Spain passed a law aimed at tackling the legacy of the 1936-39 civil war and the decades of dictatorship that followed. Primo de Rivera founded Falange in 1933 which, along with Franco's regime, became a pillar of the military and Spain’s Roman Catholic Church.3
  • Primo de Rivera's body was buried in four other sites before it was moved in 1959 to the Valley of Cuelgamuros, a mausoleum in the mountains north of Madrid. Franco built the structure and was later buried there after his death in 1975.4
  • Though Cuelgamuros was built by anti-Fascist Republican prisoners to honor the roughly 34K victims from both sides of the civil war, it had become a visible and notorious symbol of the Franco regime.4
  • The exhumation, an effort to prevent the glorification of the country's totalitarian past amid fears of the far-right gaining ground across Europe, was met with a small group of Primo de Rivera sympathizers. The right-wing Vox party became the third most popular in Spain after the 2019 general election, and now holds approximately 15% support nationally.1

Sources: 1NBC, 2Barrons, 3Al Jazeera, and 4BBC News.

Narratives

  • Left narrative, as provided by DAWN. This was the right move for the victims of Franco's dictatorship, modern-day Spanish society, and the Primo de Rivera family, who had requested his body be exhumed and transferred to the family cemetery. Spain is still grappling with its horrific fascist past, and it's the government's responsibility to help the country heal from its sins and protect its democratic future.
  • Right narrative, as provided by Federalist. If society truly wants to pursue a better future, memorials of historically evil leaders should not be torn down or removed. If people are to learn and understand the events of the past, memorials of those events and figures should be publicly displayed to ensure ignorance doesn't lead to repeating the past. Most modern-day "supporters" of these figures don't wish to revive their ideologies but rather contemplate their legacy and transgressions.