newspapers. Although its presentation before parliament was impossible due parliament's postponement, its provisions were carried out during the civil war in the Republican zone and the Popular Front government seemed to act in its spirit, announcing the decision to close down the centers of both Renovación Española and the CNT in Madrid, despite neither of these groups having anything to do with the killing. Sotelo was buried in a public funeral attended by thousands of rightists, many of whom gave the fascist salute, which infuriated the police. Several hundred rightists then marched to the city center in a political demonstration. They were stopped by a police barricade and had to show they were unarmed before they were allowed to pass. As the unarmed protesters approached the center, they were fired upon by the Guardia de Asalto and police units, with a few protesters being killed. Three members of Guardia de Asalto who protested this were temporarily arrested, while some police from Castillo's barracks felt their unit's honor had been stained by the assassination and demanded an investigation. Two Guardia de Asalto units were seemingly on the verge of mutiny. The final session of the Cortes before the war on 15 July was dominated by the assassination. Monarchists and rightists accused the government of creating the atmosphere in which Sotelo's killing was made possible. Gil-Robles presented a list of deaths and disorders of the past month. He said that every day he read calls in leftist newspapers for the right to be subject to "extermination" and warned that "the day will come when the violence you have unleashed will be turned against you." Brian Crozier explains the significance of the killing: It is hard perhaps to convey the enormity of this deed, for it is almost impossible to transport it to other countries and different circumstances. Sir Alec Douglas-Home kidnapped and murdered by Special Branch detectives? Senator Robert F. Kennedy kidnapped and murdered by the F.B.I.? Unthinkable, one might say. And that is the point: in Spain in the summer of 1936, the unthinkable had become normal. Anti-republican conspirators led by General Emilio Mola seized the moment, accelerating the military coup that had been plotted since the February election. According to Antony Beevor, Sotelo's assassination inadvertently caused many more people to support the coup than would otherwise have occurred. In 1960, Franco stated that the revolt would never have developed the