Franco’s Regime: Opposition and Political Reforms in the 1960s

Posted on Oct 5, 2025 in History

The Opposition to the Franco Regime

  • A growing desire for change emerged, stemming both from the middle class (which benefited from the economic upswing but was distant from Francoist ideology) and from industrial workers, who were increasingly politicized.
  • Urban workers, subjected to brutal changes in their living conditions—living with low wages and crowded into new neighborhoods around major cities—adopted an attitude against the Franco regime, supporting a change in the political system.
  • In 1962, a group of delegates and exiles met in Munich to denounce the undemocratic nature of the Franco regime, coinciding with Spain’s initial attempts to join the European Economic Community. They required the establishment of democracy in Spain.
  • The PCE (Spanish Communist Party) maintained pressure on the official trade unions through the Workers’ Commissions (CCOO), achieving implicit recognition from employers who considered negotiation and agreement with the CCOO more effective.
  • The regime attempted to reaffirm its strength against change by approving the TOP (Court of Public Order) in 1962 to prosecute crimes related to opinion, assembly, and association.
  • The arrival of new teachers and students (primarily middle and upper class) at the University, lacking the experience of the Civil War generation, promoted student assemblies and the radicalization of the conflict, often resulting in police intervention.
  • The Catalan and Basque nationalist movements that survived from the Republic (PNV, ERC, and other emerging groups) attracted young people, linking nationalism with anti-Franco sentiment. These movements also garnered sympathy from leftist groups.
  • Young priests and progressive Catholics confronted the Catholic hierarchy, rejecting the Franco regime and causing the erosion of Church-State relations.
  • However, it was ETA that became the biggest challenge by opting for armed struggle. They achieved significant publicity in 1970 with the Burgos Process, where six of its militants were sentenced to death. Due to massive popular demonstrations during the weeks of the trial, the regime was forced to grant pardons.

Domestic Policy and Institutionalization

  • There was constant repression of actions and views opposed to the regime, which hardened starting in 1962 with the establishment of the Public Order Tribunal (TOP).
  • The regime also attempted to neutralize the enormous social upheaval through the manipulation of the media.
  • Attempts by Minister Fraga to promote cultural and informational liberalization culminated in the 1966 Press Law, which eliminated prior censorship. However, publications were still punishable by fines and penalties after negative reports were published.
  • Despite the lack of progress towards democracy, the regime wished to complete its institutionalization during this decade.
  • To this end, the Organic Law of the State was published in December 1966, following approval in a referendum (which, as expected in a dictatorship, received almost all the votes). This law completed the Fundamental Laws of the regime.
    • It separated the Head of State (held by Franco) from the Prime Minister (responsible to Franco, who appointed him). This separation was not immediately implemented.
    • It envisaged the possibility of creating political action associations (which later proved insignificant).
  • In July 1969, Franco appointed Juan Carlos de Borbón, the Count of Barcelona’s son and grandson of Alfonso XIII, as his “successor, in his day, as King.” Juan Carlos was born in Rome but was raised in Spain in the shadow of the dictator, following agreements reached between Franco and Juan Carlos’s father in the late 1940s.