The Supreme Court has rejected the appeals that asked to halt the exhumation work in the Valley of the Fallen. The Contentious-Administrative Chamber has rejected for processing the writings presented by the Francisco Franco Foundation and by the Association for Reconciliation and Historical Truth in which the reactivation of the precautionary measure was requested.
The appealed decisions were those issued in July of last year by the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid, in which it deactivated the precautionary stoppage of the works necessary for the exhumations that had been agreed by a court in San Lorenzo de El Escorial. This court was the one that processed the appeals against the authorization of the City Council to National Heritage for the rehabilitation of accesses to the crypts of the Basilica of Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos. Contrary to the judge's criteria, the TSJ concluded that the works were not irreversible and that, therefore, it was not necessary to stop them while the appeals were processed.
Now the Supreme Court ratifies the green light that the TSJ gave to the exhumation work. The High Court does not enter into the merits of the matter, but rejects the appeals, understanding that the strict requirements for the matter to be addressed in the Supreme Court are not met. Both the association and the Francisco Franco Foundation must pay the costs of the resources.
Last December, the Government announced that work had resumed to exhume, at the request of their families, the remains of 118 war victims. The work in the Cuelgamuros Valley -current name of the Valley of the Fallen- had been paralyzed by the decision of the El Escorial court to temporarily paralyze the authorization.
Once the precautionary measures were lifted by the TSJ - a decision now ratified by the Supreme Court - and after the City Council established that it had no competence to suspend the building permit, National Heritage proceeded to resume work. They have a budget of 650,000 euros, from the Ministry of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory.
The decision of the Supreme Court to reject the appeals affects only the adoption or not of precautionary measures on the works. The substantive decision that is adopted on the regularity or not of the appealed building permit remains on the sidelines, a matter that is still pending.
A few months ago, a lawsuit against the mayoress of San Lorenzo del Escorial was added to the tangle of resources that the matter has generated. She was presented by relatives of those buried in the Valley due to the refusal of Carlota López Esteban to reactivate the license after the decision of the TSJ of Madrid to overturn the precautionary stay.
In her statement before the judge last January, the mayoress maintained that the building permit was actually "alive." And she recalled that, in fact, National Heritage has returned to the echumations. The appeals rejected by the Supreme Court are those that would have made it possible to paralyze the work again.
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