Franco’s Political Evolution and the Struggle for Power in Spain
The political evolució n tica of Franco .-
> 21.1. Instituciona1 Development and internal power struggles .-
The last two key laws intended to permanently strengthen the Franco regime were:
. Act .- Principles of the Movement (1958) It established a single party and maintained the validity of certain principles Falangists, for which the family, the municipality and the union were the only systems of political participation. The same law stated that these principles are permanent and unalterable.. Orga nica Act of-State .-
(1967) This was a sort of Franco constitution, with which it wanted to ensure the survival of the regime after the dictator’s death. Separating the role of Head of State, the Head of Government. He established the form of state as a kingdom and true to the principles of the National Movement. As this reading was considered particularly important subject to referéndum of the Spanish people overwhelmingly approved. According to this law, Franco appointed as successor to D. Juan Carlos de Bourbon, who accepted the succession, and swore to be loyal to Franco in July 1969, receiving the title of Prince of Spain. It was Franco establish a monarchy but with the same dynasty of Bourbon. The Franco would continue for a king to his head. Franco sought to make his scheme “tied up and well tied” to the institutions that survived after his death.
The internal power struggles .- Around Franco forces were set up as always different Falangists, Catholics, monarchists and after 1957 the technocrats of Opus Dei.
Each of these “families” brought different elements to the Francoist state, so for example the Catholics and the monarchists joined the ultracatolicismo while Falangists brought all the symbolic apparatus and the organizationassociation and ion masses. Already in the forties was a clash between the military and Falangists monarchists. This struggle culminates when radical Falangists threw bombs at the Shrine of Our Lady of Begoña Bilbao, to General James (representing the Army)., Franco settled the dispute out of power to his brother Serrano Suner (prominent leader Falangist) . The Allied victory in World War 11, he left Franco fascist attitudes and highlighting their Catholicism and especially its anti-communism. However after 1956 (once accepted by the international regime), the Minister of Education Ruiz Jiménez (prominent Catholic) was dismissed from his post as a result of student strikes that began in those years. Franco always tried to maintain a balance in their governments between the different forces that supported him, without allowing any to become more important than another. When Falangists thought their strength was importantOr as Giron went to give his support to another political force. A late notice of or to their governments the importance of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco will become the right hand of the dictator. Of a new economic policy, led to Franco to build on – the Opus Dei. So there is a balance between Catholics and the 1 Opus one hand, and Falangists other. In 1965 Manuel Fraga access the portfolio of Information and Tourism and promulgates a law of 1966) which abolished prior censorship, and established a tentative freedom of expression, albeit with numerous checks and continued sanctions to enforcement actions unofficial. But Fraga had to leave his portfolio in 1969 for his confrontation with the technocrats in the wake of the scandal MA TESA (textile company covered by the government members made a series of financial irregularities). Franco settled the issue of confrontation between ministers and dismissed all forming a new government. Since then leaned increasingly on Carrero Blanco, who appointed Head of the Government ended in 1973, reserving for himself the Head of State. – In the year 1953, the regimeFranco focuses on two significant victories in its foreign policy:
1. The signing of a Concordat with the Holy See to strengthen the Franco alliance with the Church was consecrated religious education in all schools, was considered the only valid marriage canon etc. With these concessions the Spanish State won the final recognition by the Vatican Scheme
2. The signing of the Treaty of Amity with the USA. by which Spain ceded military bases in ‘their land for military and economic aid (bank loans). Military bases were a risk (an example is the case of Palomares where four atomic bombs dropped from an American reactor, which failed to explode). But “on the full support of the United States assured the international regime tranquility in the future
> 21.2. International relations .-
Since 1947 and particularly after the Berlin blockade by the USSR in June 1948, the United States changed its position on the Franco regime.
When the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States was evident (in 1949 the Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb), Franco Americans saw a stalwart ally against communism. So the Franco regime began to be accepted in the West and was allowed entry into international organizations such as FAO (1950) and UNESCO (1953). Since 1955, the UN recommended the return of ambassadors to Madrid and the following year (1956) Spain entered the UN as a full member. It’s the end of international isolation. But the alliance with the U.S. Meant no support in Spanish claims on Gibraltar. The U.S. And Britain supported the Rock remained inaccessible through diplomatic channels. Franco’s dream did not materialize. On the other hand Spain is not included in NATO (although having U.S. Bases on Spanish soil “in case of conflict, we were at risk of Soviet nuclear attack, but without the military assistance from NATO).– Relations with the European Economic Community.
– During the sixties, Spain tried repeatedly to open negotiations for our entry into the European Common Market. However, the European Community blocked all attempts at negotiation. In 1970 Spain signed a treaty preferential tariff concessions by both sides, but the Europeans made it clear that the entry of Spain into Europe. Was an economic issue but a political one, while there was no dictatorship could be part of a community of democratic countries . _ So while not changing the political regime, there would be no possibility of entering the European market. – Relations with North Africa.
– In 1956, following the policy of decolonization, Spain granted independence to its protectorate of the Rif, who shall enter the kingdom of Morocco (which in turn had been decolonized by France). LaterAlso independent Equatorial Guinea (1960). As for the Sahara towards the claims of Morocco and Mauritania to a lesser extent to incorporate the settlement into its territories, Spain was in favor of self-determination for the Sahrawi people (to decide for themselves). However, there took place the referendum on self (as opposed Morocco) and this problem is not solved until the last days of Franco’s life.
> 21.3. Strengthening oposició n. —
During the early years of the Franco regime’s repression of democratic movements and the left was articulated by legislation _ as the Law of Political Responsibilities (1939) and The Law on Suppression of Freemasonry and Communism (1.940). Under these laws for political crimes were subject to military jurisdiction. The Franco applied the death penalty against his political opponents to the end. In 1963 he created the Public Order Court to try such crimes especially.
During the forties and fifties opposition <!. Or reduced to small clandestine activity grupos_del PCE, the PSOE and the CNT.
A group activity monarchists (supporters of Don Juan de Borbon) yal maquis or guerrillas formed from pockets of resistance that survived scattered mountain areas. This guerrilla lasted until 1948 when the PCE renounced armed struggle.
Activities were reduced to opposition calls for strikes in claiming that economic improvements. But the strike was the echo of trams in Barcelona, 1951. These public the Franco regime’s repression hardened by Public Order Act (1959) and the other party agreed to some flexibility in wage demands with the Collective Agreements Act (1958). It was from the sixties, when the opposition begins to renew itself. The social change was taking place in the country, gave rise to ~-e worker, a new bourgeoisie unrelated to the regime’s opposition ia university increasingly aggressive. .
From the classic prewar unions UGT and CNT, only the first had some clandestine activity. Meanwhile in the University student organizations appeared to confront the SEU (Sindicato Spanish University). New social movements also emerged as neighborhood associations, cultural groups and even priests in the church youth raised demands for rights and freedoms. The sixties witnessed the first mass demonstrations in the streets and a dramatic increase in industrial disputes.
One of the actions that had more impact was the Franco newspapers called “The conspiracy of Munich. In the fourth congress of the European Federalist Movement (1962), coincided Spanish opposition in exile and the domestic opposition and jointly called for the disappearance of Franco and the transition to democratic rule. Those attending the meeting who returned to Spain were arrested, imprisoned or exiled.
The most important groups of political opposition at the end of Franco were:
• The PCE leader Santiago Carrillo whose lived in exile • The PSOE in 1974 in Suresnes Congress was completely refurbished and exile leaders were replaced by young socialists inside • The Professor Tierno Galván PSP (which democracy end up becoming part of the PSOE.
· Historical nationalist parties like the PNV or Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya · Democratic Convergence of Catalonia born in 1974 and directed by Jordi Puyol is the continuation of the Catalan nationalist party of bourgeois origin.
• The right-wing opposition (Liberals, Social Democrats and Christian Democrats), many of them involved in the “conspiracy of Munich.
· Unions UGT and CCOO, the CNT was very weak ‘· New Left groups such as ORT (Organization of Revolutionary Workers) or LCR (Revolutionary Communist League) of Trotskyists or Maoists trends. ..
· Terrorist groups also appear as ET A (excision of young PNV) whose primary p.Eratentado occurs in 1967 or the FRAP (Frente ‘Revolutionary Patriotic Antlfascista).