Three people arrested before the relocation of Jose Rivera’s remains

The National Police arrested three people at the funeral to relocate Jose Rivera’s remains.

They were said to be supporters of José Antonio Primo de Rivera who clashed with security forces upon the arrival of the funeral procession at The Valley of the Fallen.

There were thought to be around 200 Falangist supporters present and many broke through police barriers shouting, “Criminal government” and “First you murder then you desecrate.”

The Falangists were protesting about the exhumation of Primo de Rivera, and they blame family members who they say did not fight hard enough to stop the relocation of his remains.

It was the Supreme Court in Spain which gave the go-ahead for Rivera’s remains to be moved and buried next to his wife in El Pardo, Madrid.

The controversy over Rivera’s burial at the Valley of the Fallen has been going on for many years.

The Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) argued that the Basilica and the 150-metre-high cross were a monument to the Franco regime said PSOE leader Pedro Sanchez. He went on to say “The monument glorifies the winners of the civil war rather than commemorating its victims. The move is necessary to heal the wounds of war.”

Whilst Rivera’s family didn’t dispute the exhumation, they did dispute the location. They asked the court for his reburial to take place in the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid, next to his daughter, but this was refused because it was said to be too much of a security risk. The cathedral is next to The Royal Palace.