Franco’s Regime: Falange, Church, and Authoritarian State
**The Falange and National Syndicalism**
After the war, Franco’s Falange provided elements of its ideology and its external image. Liberal, Marxist, and anti-democratic, **national syndicalism** advocated by the Falange was a totalitarian system based on the theories of Italian fascism regarding the organization of the corporate state. It was controlled by a single party and a union that would overcome the conflict between social classes, promoting feelings of national solidarity.
The **Falange** also provided the memory of its leader, **José Antonio Primo de Rivera**, who became a myth for Franco. José Antonio was one of the slogans of the regime.
The Falange exercised its **indoctrination** and recruitment efforts through parallel organizations such as the Women’s Section, the Youth Front, and the Spanish Youth Organization (OJE). Under its inspiration, the national trade union center, the CNS or vertical union, was created, in which employers and workers were compelled to join. About a third of the senior members of the Franco regime in the early years were Falangists. The defeat of Germany and Italy in World War II marked the relief of prominent Falangists in the government.
**The Church and National Catholicism**
The Church supported the rebels on July 18, 1936, blessing them as crusaders and martyrs who died for God and Spain. After winning the war, Franco began to control the church hierarchy through the right of submission of bishops to the **Vatican**. He granted the church absolute ideological pre-eminence. The state declared religious and secular laws of the Republic abolished, prohibiting civil marriage, divorce, and abortion, considering them anti-Christian. He gave the **clergy** control of **education** through censorship of textbooks and the compulsory teaching of the Catholic religion and facilitated the creation of religious schools. In addition, participation in Catholic rituals and liturgies was almost obligatory, under the pain of being considered disaffected.
Another hallmark of Francoism was hatched: **National Catholicism**, the defense of religion and Catholic morality in its most traditional form, as the very essence of Spain itself. Under this, the fierce repression waged against Masons and communism was justified. Franco felt a particular aversion to **Masonry** that led him to condemn all secular and enlightened traditions of Europe. On the other hand, communism became the target of the regime’s diatribes, especially since it showed the great return policy that was supposed to attack the Soviets in the context of the Cold War that was introduced in Europe in the late forties.
**The Institutionalization of the Authoritarian State**
In the early years, Franco defined the institutional system of a new authoritarian state. Franco always referred to party **democracy** by the derogatory term, that is, a one-party government that, instead of uniting the Spanish, faced them. For this reason, he abolished political parties, both “red-separatist” (Republicans, Socialists, Communists, and Nationalists) and those on the right (Monarchists and Catholics). In addition, he banned the press called political parties. He formed a conglomerate block called the **National Movement** from those who supported the July 18 revolt.
Franco’s aversion to liberal democracy was such that he resigned to enact a legal body that could remind people of liberal constitutions. Instead, he published a series of fundamental laws.
Constitutive Act of the Parliament (1942) defined a chamber elected by Franco and the indirect election of corporations (trade unions, families, and municipalities). This system is called organic democracy.
National Referendum Act (1945) recognized the right of the Spanish to vote, which could be exercised in electoral consultations on certain matters of state. But the few that arrived were subjected to all kinds of propaganda manipulations.
The Jurisdiction of the Spanish (1945) was a declaration of the rights and duties of the Spanish, made without democratic guarantees.
El Pardo, July 17, 1945, Francisco Franco
The Jurisdiction of the Spanish in 1945 demonstrates the assertion that duties were performed without rights and democratic guarantees. At present, almost all the articles first recognized the right and then suited their interests, that is, as if he refused the final additions to the articles.
For example, Article 6 states that “The Catholic religion… is recognized as the official religion,” and then adds that “nevertheless assumes the protection of religious freedom,” that is, as if it contradicted itself. The same applies to Article 30, the recognition of private property and subordination “to the nation and the common good.”
The Law of Succession to the Head of State was passed due to the offensive launched by the royalist forces commanded by the pretender to the Spanish throne, Juan de Borbón. The law provided for the lifetime rule of Franco and allowed him to appoint his successor, which, as we shall see, was not decided until twenty years later.
Article 6 of the Organic Law of the State (1967)
This text is a fragment belonging to the Organic Law of the State, an extension of the Act of Succession to the Head of State, approved by referendum.
It speaks of how the three branches of government—judicial, legislative, and executive—focused on one person, so the focus is on the importance of the scheme.
As for the powers, “he is the supreme representative of the Nation,” exercising supreme political and administrative power (executive), “holds the National Headquarters of the Movement,” and warrants… “Sanctions and promulgates the laws” (legislative power), “administered justice” (the judiciary).
In conclusion, we see how all the power was concentrated in one person, that is, an authoritarian regime, a dictatorship, nearly 30 years later.