The Minister for Territorial Policy and Government spokesperson, Isabel RodrÃguez, affirmed today that the exhumation of the remains of the founder of the Falange, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, is taking place with “absolute normality” and has highlighted the importance of having done this work with “all the scientific and technical rigor and with all respect and accompaniment to his family”.
In an interview on Antena 3, the minister recalled that the process takes place within the framework of what the Democratic Memory Law mandates. Asked if the chosen date has been determined by the Government or the family, she replied that they have worked with “absolute respect for the family’s decisions in the way they had to be done.”
The exhumation of the remains of Primo de Rivera, from their location on the main altar of the Basilica of the Valley of the Fallen, is being undertaken this morning in an operation designed with the utmost discretion, behind closed doors and without the presence of authorities or the press.
The minister has also referred to the meeting that the Junta de AndalucÃa will hold today in Brussels with the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, to address the bill to regularize irrigation in Doñana, and has asked the executive of Juanma Moreno to “stop being ridiculous” and withdraw the initiative.
He has also justified the absence of the head of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, at the Cervantes Award ceremony, the highest award for letters in Spanish, in the “very intense” agenda of the president of one of the main powers in the world and has added that “he has other issues on the table” that will be heard. He has also denied that he is preparing the face-to-face that he will hold tomorrow with the head of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in the Senate and has assured that this debate is “the easiest thing” that Sánchez has on the agenda this week.
On the visit of Juan Carlos I to Spain, he has once again framed it in the private sphere. “He can come to his country when he deems it appropriate,” he remarked. RodrÃguez added that the Government maintains relations with Felipe VI, whose commitment to transparency and exemplarity has stood out.
