The PSOE threatens to close by law the crypt of the Almudena if it hosts the remains of Franco

The problem faced by the Government during Franco's exhumation procedure is that the family chose the crypt of the Almudena, where they own a cemetery, to bury the remains once they were exhumed from the Valley of the Fallen. That space receives visits and the fear of both the Church and the socialists is that they produce celebrations in the heart of Madrid.

Another one of the amendments with which the Socialists intend to modify the law of historical memory includes a sanctioning regime for the spaces in which the dictatorship's uprisings take place. The goal of the PSOE is to settle the responsibility for both "by action and by omission." In addition to the economic fines, the exaltation may mean the "temporary or definitive closure of such spaces open to the public, whatever their ownership", according to the same sources.

Withdraw by law the medals to Billy El Niño

With these legislative changes, those of Sanchez intend to punish the Church for hosting tributes to Franco, as the 'face of the sun' that was sung at the funeral of Utrera de Molina. Socialists have opted for the parliamentary through amendments to the decree that the government approved in August to avoid that the remains of the dictator finish in the crypt of the cathedral of the Almudena, as the grandsons of the golpista claim.

That option put it on the table the Executive last week after several weeks in which there was recognized that he could not do anything to prevent Franco from ending up in that preeminent place in Madrid and with the refusal of the Church, including the Vatican, to take exceptional measures. But now Sánchez has decided to give the battle.

The PSOE will also take advantage of the processing of this modification of the law of historical memory to have the sustenance to withdraw the police awards to the torturer Billy the Child. "A disposition will be added that orders the retirement of decorations when it is proved that the decorated one incurred in conducts manifestly incompatible with the received distinction", they indicate socialist sources.

The Government works practically from the beginning of the mandate in the formula to withdraw the honors to him and the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, already advanced that it had prepared the legal form in the hope of being approved, although it will not point directly to Antonio González Pacheco .

The Ministry of the Interior expects that the entry into force of any legal reform for the withdrawal of the medals to police Billy the Kid should be extended to dozens of other cases that, like the torturer in the Franco regime and the transition, are unworthy of belonging to the Order of Police Merit, informs Pedro Águeda.

The withdrawal of the medals supposes annulling a decision adopted according to a Law, concretely the 5/1964. A legal reform affects from the moment it enters into force, so adding an additional provision to the aforementioned text would encounter the problem of impossible retroactivity. The Socialist Group opts to reform another law of the same rank, the Law of Historical Memory, and allude to a behavior "unworthy" at the time of the award of the medal, which would nullify the administrative act of its grant.

Exhumations of victims: State initiative

The proposal of the PSOE for the amendment of the law of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero also includes one of the claims of the collective memory: that the General State Administration has the power to carry out exhumation procedures for victims of Francoist repression and the dictatorship that until now must be claimed by private individuals and were never ex officio.

The amendments that the PSOE will register in Congress soon also refer to the Truth Commission on war and Francoism. The idea is that it be an independent national body working on the recovery and analysis of historical documents, testimonies and other materials on the period between July 1936 and December 1978. Sánchez reiterated his intention to constitute that organism after visit the Museum of Memory and Human Rights of Chile, where he also met with the daughter of Salvador Allende. In that country, the truth commission was constituted shortly after the Pinochet dictatorship.

The decree with which the Government intends to carry out the exhumation of Franco is now being processed as a bill to which the groups can submit amendments for the modification of the law of historical memory. The independentistas, for example, pleaded for the annulment of the condemnations of the Franco regime, such as the sentencing of Lluís Companys.

The difficulty now facing the Government is the blockade of PP and Citizens, who have the entire legislature extending the deadlines for amendments to the initiatives that, in many cases, have been frozen months. Ciudadanos changed its strategy last week with respect to a score of proposals, but on Tuesday will ask again the extension of the period of presentation of amendments to the article for the law of historical memory, like the PP. That means that the modification will be delayed at least another week and we will have to wait for what position it adopts next week. The Socialists now move the pressure to those of Albert Rivera: "They will have to be photographed," government sources said Friday.