The Government, through the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, has announced that it will appeal the ruling of the Contentious-Administrative Court number 10 of Madrid that has annulled the building license granted by the San Lorenzo de El Escorial City Council to access to the crypts of Cuelgamuros (the Valley of the Fallen) and proceed to the exhumations of mortal remains of victims of Francoism and the Civil War, as confirmed by sources from the Ministry of the Presidency, Relations with the Cortes and Democratic Memory.
The department headed by Minister Félix Bolaños has also recalled that the same court “already imposed precautionary measures, during this same procedure, which were appealed and lifted” by the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid.
“The Government reaffirms its commitment to the location and recovery of the remains of the victims, as their relatives wish,” the sources stated.
The ruling, to which Europa Press had access, upholds 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 , from the San Lorenzo de El Escorial City Council, which is cancelled.
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.