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The EconomistOctober 26th 2019 Europe 49

A

fterdyinginhisbedin 1975 General

FranciscoFranco,Spain’sdictatorfor

36 years,wasburiedinhasteattheValley

oftheFallen,a grandiosemonumenton

a mountainsideoutsideMadridthathe

builttocelebratehisvictoryintheSpan-

ishcivilwar.Buthispresence,inoneof

onlytwonamedtombsamid34,000

anonymouswardead,isnowseenasan

aberration.OnOctober24th,inanoper-

ationorganisedbyPedroSánchez,the

Socialistprimeminister,andattendedby

22 ofFranco’sdescendants,hiscoffin

wasduetobedugupandthenmovedtoa

quietpubliccemeteryontheoutskirtsof

thecapital,wherehiswifelies.

MrSánchezwascarryingouta resolu-

tionoftheSpanishparliamentanda

promisehemadeonbecomingprime

ministerlastyear.It tookmorethana

yeartoovercomelegalobjectionsfrom

Franco’sfamily—whowantedtorebury

him,prominently,inthecryptofMa-

drid’scathedral—andthethreatened

disobedienceoftheBenedictineprior

whoadministerstheValley.TheVatican

slappeddowntheprior;lastmonththe

SupremeCourtruledunanimouslythat

thegovernmentcouldproceed.

“Noenemyofdemocracydeservesa

placeofworshipnorinstitutionalre-

spect,”MrSanchezsaidofthecourt

ruling.MoreSpaniardsagreewithhim

thandisagree.Butthedelaymeansthe

exhumationcomesbarelya fortnight

beforea generalelection,thefourthinas

manyyears.TheSocialistshopeit will

rallytheirfaithful.OnlyVox,a far-right

party,activelyopposeswhatit callsa

“profanation”ofFranco’stomb.The

conservativeoppositionwouldrather

discussthefuture.

TheSocialistswanttoturntheValley

into“amuseumofmemory”.Theiroppo-

nentsfearthatwouldleadtothewriting

ofhistorybyonesideagain.Modern

SpainisnotinthralltoFranco’sghost.

MostSpaniardshavenomemoryofhim.

Butthecountryhasyettoagreeonthe

past.It mayneverdoso.

DiggingupFranco

Spanishhistory

MADRID

Anexhumationthatisbothhistoricaldutyandelectoralstunt

T

he frenchare accustomed to angry
farmers paralysing traffic. In the Neth-
erlands, which prides itself on consensual
government, such agricultural aggression
used to be rare. Yet over the past month
Dutch farmers have turned stubborn. On
October 1st and again on October 16th,
thousands of them parked their tractors on
The Hague’s main parade grounds, clam-
ouring that proposed environmental regu-
lations would put them out of business.
“The Netherlands without farmers would
be like Amsterdam without whores,” one
banner proclaimed. (It rhymes in Dutch.)
The source of the conflict is nitrogen
pollution, which comes in two forms: ni-
tric oxides (NOx), mainly from combustion
engines, and ammonia, mostly from fertil-
iser and animal waste. These lead to smog,
algae blooms and other problems. In May
the Netherlands’ Council of State ruled that
the government’s system for limiting such
pollution was too lax for European law.
Farmers, especially those with high-
density cattle stalls, were thrown into cha-
os. They are not the only ones bellowing.
Construction causes NOx emissions too, so
up to €14bn worth of housing and infra-
structure projects have been called into
question until the government can come
up with a new permit system. Business or-
ganisations and unions are incensed.
The group that has brought the Dutch
construction and agriculture sectors to a
standstillisa tinynon-profit,Mobilisation

for the Environment (mob), that operates

on a shoestring budget with seven staff. In

2017 it went to the European Court of Jus-

tice (ecj) to challenge a system which the

Dutch had introduced two years earlier.

Under the European Habitats Directive, all

eumembers must limit nitrogen pollution

to protect a network of wildlife reserves

known as Natura 2000. Unlike other coun-

tries, the Netherlands allowed farmers and

industry to take measures they hoped

would reduce nitrogen levels (such as ex-

perimental air-scrubbers), and count the

expected reductions against new emis-

sions—even before gathering evidence

that they worked. The ecjfound that this

was not good enough. The Council of State

agreed, scrapping the permit system. Fully

18,000 projects with recent or pending per-

mits are up in the air. Hundreds of sites lie

idle: roadworks in Gelderland, a residen-

tial district of 470 houses in Roermond, ex-

pansion of an airport east of Amsterdam.

Polls at first showed that the Dutch

overwhelmingly sympathised with the

farmers, and four provincial governments

have backed down, abandoning the plans

they had drawn up to meet the govern-

ment’s new recommendation. On October

14th, though, the farmers crossed a line. In

a protest in the provincial capital of Gro-

ningen, one drove a tractor through a barri-

er into a bicycle-jammed street, while an-

other used his to smash open the doors of

the provincial legislature. Many Dutch pol-

iticians worry that the farmers’ actions are

undermining the country’s tradition of

compromise by showing that extreme ges-

tures work. Looser regulations on agricul-

ture would mean tighter ones on the con-

struction industry, which is planning its

own demonstration in The Hague on Octo-

ber 30th. Any new system for limiting ni-

trogen emissions will have to involve more

than airy promises. 7

THE HAGUE
A tiny environmental group wins a
huge victory

Dutch environmentalism

Nitro dissidents

Aggrobusiness