The Contentious-Administrative Court number 10 of Madrid has annulled the building license granted by the San Lorenzo de El Escorial City Council to access the crypts of the Valley of the Fallen and proceed with the exhumations of mortal remains of victims of Francoism and the civil War. The lawyer for the families of 128 victims of Cuelgamuros, Eduardo Ranz, has regretted the new delay in the exhumations that could result from the judicial annulment of the planning license that allowed the extraction of the bodies.
This is stated in a ruling in which the appeal filed by the Franco Foundation and the Association for Reconciliation and Historical Memory, among other appellants, against the Agreement of the Local Government Board, of June 24, 2021, of the San Lorenzo de El Escorial City Council, which is annulled.
The appeal challenged the resolution of the City Council of the aforementioned town by which a construction license was authorized for the accesses to the crypts of the Basilica of Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos. The appellants maintained that the works are not “maintenance or rehabilitation works, but rather consolidation, demolition and new construction works.”
The sentence comes after last June the Government began work to exhume the victims of the Civil War in the Cuelgamuros Valley to comply with the Democratic Memory Law.
On March 13, the Supreme Court gave the green light to the exhumations of the remains of the victims of the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship buried in the Valley of the Fallen by rejecting the appeal presented by the Francisco Franco Foundation.
Now, the judge agrees to declare the nullity of the Agreement of the Local Government Board, of June 24, 2021, of the San Lorenzo de El Escorial City Council, considering that it exceeds what could be authorized with a works license.
The judge understands that the absence of motivation for the contested act determines, in principle, its nullity and whenever defenselessness is caused, a defenselessness that is considered to occur “in this case because this absence of reasoning prevents the citizen, and more so in a area where public action is recognized, the possibility of knowing the reasons why a decision of the Administration is not arbitrary but in accordance with the Law”.
“The relevant omissions from the technical report and the municipal agreement entail the exclusion from the assessment of factual data relevant to the decision adopted by the City Council, leaving the choice made without justification,” says the magistrate.
He then emphasizes that “the urban planning regulations of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, taking into account the nature of the works, require either a special plan or an urban planning license, a relevant difference taking into account the different nature between a planning instrument and a mere regulated authorization.” .
