Franco’s Law of Political Responsibilities: 1939
**Location**
This text was written by General Franco on February 9, 1939, and was subsequently published on February 13 of the same year, two months before the ceasefire of the Civil War. The recipients were all those who opposed the military uprising that began the Civil War (1936-39). Therefore, we could say that this is a public text, official and national in scope. It could also be considered a legal text that is political in nature. Finally, it is a document of that era and aims to have an immediate effect upon enactment.
**Analysis**
- Subversion
- Red: Refers to the term “negative lift”, used by Republicans and Nationalists against the real uprising, which was the national military one.
- Retroactive Law: This text allows certain actions to be considered illegal, even if they were legal when performed.
- Article 1: Accuses those who sided with the Republic, calling it the “Red Uprising”, of hurting Spain, when in reality it was the insurgents who did so.
- Articles 2 and 3: Refer to the banning of all parties that defended Republican values and the loss of the assets of these abolished parties.
**Comment**
In the November 1933 elections, the CEDA (Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights) won. The government of this period could be defined as unstable and violent. So, in February 1936, other elections took place in which the Popular Front, a coalition of Republican-Socialists, won. Therefore, in this third phase of the Second Republic, the ideological confrontation between the components of the 1st and 3rd bienniums and those of the 2nd intensified. Despite trying to rule peacefully, on July 17, 1936, an uprising took place in Melilla, starting the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).
The progress of the war was directly influenced by international aid. The Nationalist side was helped by Germany and Italy. The Republicans, by contrast, were alone, as France and Britain signed the Non-Intervention Pact. Furthermore, after the Battle of the Ebro in 1938, in which the Republican forces were significantly depleted, it became clear that the odds of a Republican victory were slim.
Ultimately, the Nationalist side won, and although at first it was thought that this victory would lead to peace, the end of the war brought with it new repression by the dictatorship established by General Franco: The Francoist regime (1939-75).
One of the first measures introduced by Franco was the establishment of the law of our text, the Law of Political Responsibilities. With this Act, Franco was able to punish all those who opposed the uprising and all those who supported the Republican regime before the war. He starts by referring to the “Red Uprising” as if this would have been detrimental to Spain when it really was the reverse. In this first article, reference can also be made to the uprising in Asturias in 1934. Moreover, this law also outlaws the parties of the 1st and 3rd bienniums of the Second Republic, besides causing them the loss of all their possessions. All this can be done because of the retrospective nature of the law, establishing as illegal in the Francoist regime what was legal during the Second Republic. They were then accused of the legal actions they committed during the Second Republic, which were now illegal, and were thus captured. In this way, the Francoist regime obtained a legal justification to give a makeup of legality. Besides this law, another was also created in 1940: the Law for the Repression of Freemasonry and Communism, as another measure to carry out the repressive regime.
**Critical Comment**
After the Nationalist victory, those who lost the war suffered post-war repression through executions, imprisonment, and exile. This was followed by the establishment of a totalitarian, National-Catholic regime, which had the military’s support, and which all Spaniards had to accept if they wanted to live freely. As for international recognition, the country was initially isolated, but from 1951 onwards, international relations began to be established.
Moreover, during its first 25 years, the regime based its right of existence on the Civil War victory. But since 1964, when the concept of “peace” changed, as the Second World War had ended, it was therefore more appropriate to speak of peace instead of victory. Finally, this regime was characterized by the legalization of all that Franco saw fit, as the death penalty remained in force until September 1975, the same month the dictator, who signed seven death sentences, was killed. It was not until the next stage, the Transition, that it was outlawed.