Franco’s Regime: Political Evolution and Socio-Economic Impact

Posted on Dec 7, 2024 in History

Ideological and Political Evolution of Franco’s Regime

After the victory in the Civil War, which spread to the whole of Spain, a state was established whose foundations had been laid in the “nationalist zone” during the conflict. These can be summarized as follows:

1. Concentration of political power in Franco. The “unwavering commitment” to the Caudillo was the key element of the whole political edifice of Francoism.
2. Defense of the “unity of the homeland.” Refusal of any political autonomy of the regions and promotion of the Castilian Spanish language only. The other peninsular languages were strictly banned at an early stage, later evolving into some tolerance.
3. Traditionalism. The idea of Spain defended by the dictatorship was based on historical roots, often adulterated (La Reconquista, the Empire, Defense of Catholicism).
4. Militarism. Social preponderance of the military (parades, uniforms, anthems, flag, etc.).
5. Exacerbated nationalism of a centralizing, unitary, and totalizing character, rejecting any kind of regional autonomy, considered separatist and anti-Spanish, prohibiting the use of vernacular languages in public acts, schools, and churches.

All this led to a fascist political system (single party, the exaltation of the past, the cult of personality of the head of state, leader, etc.) very similar to that of the totalitarian regimes in Italy and Germany.

1. National Catholicism. The Church was the great legitimizer of the Francoist dictatorship. In exchange, it dominated social life and education. A strict Catholic morality in public and in private was imposed on the country. The Church, in turn, obtained the domain of education, the restoration of salaries to the clergy, and even the control of teachers. At the same time, Franco had the right to propose to the Vatican on behalf of future bishops and enter under a canopy in the churches. The relationship between the system and Catholicism was so close that it became the state religion, a doctrine known as “National Catholicism.”
2. Anti-communism. Preventing the victory of the communist revolution was one of the key objectives of the rebels. This led them to sign the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany and Italy. Likewise, the cruel repression of Marxism and all that sounded like the labor movement continued until the end of the Franco regime. This feature allowed the anti-Franco regime to emerge from international isolation during the Cold War.
3. Anti-liberalism and anti-parliamentarism, accused of being the source of the ills of Spain and later as unsuitable for Spain, given the nature of the Spaniards.

The Franco regime, in turn, relied on the following bases:

I. The Social Basis of the Franco Dictatorship

The new regime was established in the oligarchy, which regained its financial and social hegemony and was the main beneficiary of the regime’s interventionist economic policy, and rural middle classes in the North and Castile that were under the strong influence of the Catholic religion. By contrast, most of the urban middle classes and working classes barely backed the dictatorship. In the early years of the regime, systematic repression, poverty, and demoralization after the defeat prevented the lack of support from taking the form of opposition. The situation changed in the sixties. Economic development caused the system to have more social consensus among the working and middle classes, while at the same time the timid liberalization of the country led to the development of the opposition.

II. Political Bases of the Regime

The political system of the dictatorship was based on the strict ban on political parties, coupled with a brutal crackdown against those who had supported the Republic. In 1937 (Unification Decree) a single party had been established, the FET de las JONS, which came to be called the National Movement. However, within the regime, under complete subordination to the Leader, there were different political families, that is, groups with different political sensibilities that sought to influence decisions taken by Franco:

1. Falange: The Falange had nothing to do with the small fascist group founded by José Antonio. Now Falangists were integrated into a single party under the absolute leadership of Franco. Its main function was to control the social and economic life of the country through various institutions of the regime: the Youth Front, the Women’s Section, and the Organization. The Falange played an important role in the early days of the dictatorship. After the defeat of the fascist Axis powers in 1945, it went on to have a more secondary role.
2. Army: Permanent guarantor of the essence of the regime and its permanence, it was always loyal to the dictator. It had much more influence than the Falange, and most military leaders played important positions in government, administration, and business. Defender of the regime and its legal system. Its activities did not comply with the defense of Spanish territory, but had jurisdiction over political crimes by the “councils of war.” Most, especially the commanders, shared the ideology of Franco’s victory in 1939: anti-communism, his rejection of separatism, and its hardness in matters of public order.
3. The Catholic Church represented the sanctioning element of “legitimacy” of the Franco regime: the civil war was a “crusade” against Marxist atheism, and the Concordat of 1953 consolidated the presence of the Church in high school and in intellectual life, becoming a propagator of the regime’s ideology. There was a close alliance between the Church and the “New State”: the bishops participated in institutions such as the Privy Council and the Parliament, and the Head of State presented a slate for election to the Pope in it the bishop of each diocese.
4. Royalists, who were never a very militant opposition group, were divided between Carlists and supporters of Don Juan. The first group, who defended the cause of Don Javier, who never thought Franco would ascend to the throne, received some positions within the regime, somehow embodying the conservative Catholic traditionalism that had always defended Carlism. Supporters of Don Juan, son of Alfonso XIII, supported the regime, then walking away from it for not restoring the constitutional monarchy that existed before the proclamation of the Second Republic in 1931. Some of these monarchists defended the solution of a “Franco monarchy” that would embody the young Juan Carlos (son of Don Juan), who in 1967 was appointed successor to Franco, and in 1969, swore to the observance of the “Fundamental Principles of the Movement.”

In practice, all these families had a secondary role. Franco always prevented someone from grabbing too much power and sought a balance that ensured their absolute power. Finally, it is important to note that the scheme is held in its first years of repression and the enactment of laws to eliminate any hint of opposition: Political Accountability Act (1939), the Law on Suppression of Freemasonry and Communism (1940), the State Security Law (1941) and the Law on Suppression of Banditry and Terrorism (1947), which resulted in many executions and imprisonment of dissidents to the regime.

Evolution of Politics

1. Blue Stage: The Totalitarian Regime (1939-1945)

A) The Rise of Falangist Hegemony

The first government of the dictatorship, on the one hand, followed the guidelines of all the governments of Franco—involving all the political families of the regime—but on the other, in this first phase, there was a qualitative and quantitative dominance of the Falange, due to Germany’s role in the international scene and the recent civil war. The strong man of this stage was Serrano Suñer, “the Cuñadísimo.” The Falange encouraged a framework program typically fascist society, through the vertical union, the SEU (Spanish University Union), the Youth Front, the Women’s Section, and the control of much of the media.

On July 17, 1942, the Law of the Courts, the second of the Basic Laws (the first, the Labor Law, was 1938) was enacted as another step towards institutionalizing the regime. The Courts was a kind of Corporate, the model of the National Assembly of Primo de Rivera. The functions of the courts would be more technical than political, with a force of legitimacy and support.

B) Spain and the Second World War

Just after the civil war ended, the Second World War started. In 1940 Franco abandoned neutrality and became non-belligerent, which actually amounted to pre-belligerency. Hitler met with Franco at Hendaye in October 1940, and there he remembered that Spain had declared war on Great Britain to recover Gibraltar and occupy territory in northern Africa, but the Spanish plight and progress of the war made that entry not becoming effective. What Spain did was to send the Blue Division against the Soviets. From 1942, with the U.S. entry into the war, it became clear that the defeat of the Axis powers was clear. Franco began to change position, due to the danger of its support for his regime. So in 1943, he returned to neutrality and also began a series of major changes to adapt to the new international situation and save his government.

C) The Beginning of the Falangist Decline

The change of international situation and the opposition to the dominance of the phalanx by the Church and the army, they take advantage of an incident Franco (the Begoña case, where clashes between Phalangists and Carlists a minister was wounded military Varela) to give a new direction to his government. Franco emerged from the crisis, as in the post, naming a new government in which sacrificed the two warring parties (or Serrano Suñer, and Varela continued). Franco showed his ability to maneuver shrewdly among policy sectors that supported the regime. Ministers persisted members of all families, but began to lose prominence Falange, yes, never more so quesignificará his disappearance. From that moment the spotlight is borne Catholics.

2. National Catholicism (1945-1957)

The defeat of the Axis powers (Germany and Italy) posed a real threat to the survival of the dictatorship in Spain. Franco, as he would then always adapted to new circumstances, continued to have the same political families, but giving them dominance in this case Catholics, while amending the political orientation of the regime by certain institutional changes and a diplomatic offensive supported by the Church that became his great international support. From the fifties, these changes together with the international circumstances of the Cold War, gave the desired effects, achieving international legitimacy and thus the survival of his regime.

A) International Isolation and the End of It

After World War II began an international campaign to isolate Spain from the outside world. The reasons are not only the Spanish position in the second world war but also their own civil war and, above all, the authoritarian regime that existed in Spain. The ambassadors were withdrawn (only remained those of Argentina, Portugal and the Vatican), Spain remained outside the Marshall Plan, the UN and France closed the border with Spain. In the early fifties was the long awaited international recognition, motivated primarily by the circumstances created by the confrontation between the U.S. and the USSR, the Cold War. In this context the anti-Catholicism and the Franco regime brought him out of that isolation. Became ambassadors in 1951, Spain joined the UN and its specialized agencies (FAO, UNESCO, etc.) And, above all signed the Concordat with the Holy See in 1953, which regulated church-state relations, and the Spanish-American Agreement on the United States jointly use a series of military bases in exchange for economic aid.

B) National Catholicism in Power

On July 18, 1945, Franco proceeded to form a new government. The general lines were the same as the change from 42, qualitative and quantitative loss of the Falange, maintenance of the military and the Catholic breakthrough, claiming the support of the Vatican and reduce the hostility of democracies occidentales. In 1945 was enacted third fundamental law: the Charter of the Spanish. It was intended to emulate the democratic constitutions, washing face the regime to achieve international acceptance, defining the Franco regime as an organic democracy (a concept quite propaganda, democracy was organic. It was said that Spain was an organic democracy, a democracy true, which were removed the worst of democracy, political pluralism and genuine participation was facilitated through the bodies (hence the name) core state: the family, the municipality and the union ..). , Although it included a number of rights, not articulated a system that guaranteed and it was envisaged that the government suspended. The fourth basic law was the National Referendum Act, the plebiscite content, ie the people be consulted on important issues. The fifth was one of the most important, the Act of Succession to the Head of State, 1947, Spain was defined as a Catholic state, social and representations, statements constituted as United. The first strategy of the regime to gain legitimacy accentuate her features had been Catholic, the second would make greater use of the monarchical aspect. You created the Privy Council and the Council of Regency. In this Act, Franco was as Chief of life, and could propose to Parliament his successor. Don Juan rejected this bill, but in 1948 came with Franco agreed that Don Juan Carlos was educated in Spain.

C) The Crisis of 1956 and the Rise of Technocrats to Power

In the mid-fifties, first, the autarkic policies had led to a difficult economic situation and policy of the other Catholics had symptoms of exhaustion, the appeared while various groups within the Catholic Church. The trigger major policy changes that lay ahead were the events of February 1956 where there were street battles between liberal students and phalanges. It blamed the situation to the education minister Ruiz Giménez for its policy of openness, but Franco making government reshuffle left out not only this but also the Phalange Fernández Cuesta. In the late fifties the Church was not monolithic institution that supports the system seamless. There was one hand, a group of Catholic intellectuals led Ruiz Giménez who claimed openness and freedom of expression, other groups began a nationalist line workers and would join the opposition. Since 1956, the Church was able to inspire a single policy. The technocrats of Opus Dei, who agreed to hand Carrero Blanco, was only an option within the Church faction would have the political and economic role until the end of Franco. The three key figures were Lopez Rodo, Alberto Navarro Ullastres and Rubio. They will be the protagonists of the third stage of Franco.

2. Socio-Economic Development and Political Opposition to the Regime

I. Socioeconomic Evolution

1. Autarchy (1939-1959)

The Civil War had important demographic effects from the perspective of the economy. On the one hand, it caused a decrease in population similar in relative terms, World War II in France or Italy. Furthermore, the subsequent repression affected at least double of the dead in the battlefield. The repression and exile affected sectors of skilled workers whose skills were important to the production process. At the conclusion of military hostilities, the economy was sound disjointed. Agricultural and industrial production was much lower than that of 1935, the gold and currency reserves were gone, and the transport network was severely damaged. The destruction of buildings and manufacturing plants were moderate, although the regime used them as an element of propaganda to justify a bad situation. The moderate deterioration of the production team was in no case severe enough to explain both the negative trend in the years immediately after 1939 as the slow return to the level of activity prior to the conflict.

A) Rationing and Black Market

The Caudillo victory in the Civil War had very negative economic impact. In the short term, plunged into hunger and misery to many Spanish. In the long term, the arbitrary decisions of the recently consolidated a very competitive economy in which the influence peddling and corruption were key destacados. The slow economic recovery was directly related to the implementation of the economic ideas of the winners, which replaced the functioning of markets by the arbitrary fixing of prices and forced to seek authorization to initiate an economic activity. The fixing of prices below those resulting from supply and demand led to food shortages and the spread of the queue, forcing the maintenance ration, initially established as a contingency measure in May 1939. The producers were forced to sell the entire output to the Administration at a price fixed by the rate. Subsequently, the Administration was the only one who could sell the products to consumers at a price too regulado. Como rate prices did not reflect situations of abundance or relative scarcity, immediately arose and black marketeers black market in which transactions were made outside the law. In many cases, their prices doubled or tripled the official market. In the case of oil and wheat, a third of everything produced was sold through these illegal procedures. The energy shortage was also a symbol of economic hardship. Until the mid-fifties, coal and oil were rationed and from 1944 to 1954 were electrical restrictions.

B) The Axes of Autarky

The regime sought to achieve economic self-isolation from the outside and the replacement market for widespread involvement of government. The result was blocking economic growth, competitiveness and reducing the waste of the favorable economic conditions that met Europe after the Second World War. Thus, the incorporation of Spain to the phase of rapid growth and dominant technological change in Europe between 1945 and 1973, took place not only late but important autarky desequilibrios. The mortgages and had two main lines of action. The first was the regulation of foreign economic relations. Imports and exports began to be completely controlled, making it necessary to have official authorization to perform them. This measure was intended to identify key products and those that were redundant, that decision was also influenced by the scarcity of gold and foreign exchange. It was also the reason why, shortly after, was regulated change of the peseta, establishing different types, all above their market value. As a result, more expensive products that the economy had to import (oil) and there was a severe shortage of goods imprescindibles. The second major axis of the economic policy of the first stage of Franco was the industrial building, facing activities of military interest. In this case, the main objective was to achieve sufficient power to ensure the military and political independence of the new state. The action was aimed at boosting capital goods industries, which were an important and continuing public support, which generóun large public spending very significant inflationary impact. In 1941, the year in which nationalized the railway system with the creation of RENFE, was founded at the core of industrial policy: the National Institute of Industry. The INI, a conglomerate of public companies, tried to produce the maximum possible, regardless of costs, and in as many desectores, regardless of whether there were favorable conditions for developing the proposed activities. In these early years was when they were the major national companies (Iberia, Endesa, SEAT).

2. The First Liberalization Measures (1951-1956)

The exclusion of Spain from the Marshall Plan (1948-52), which allowed the reconstruction of postwar Europe, prevented our country access to credit that would have facilitated an early economic recovery. In 1951, the situation created by the policy of autarky had taken strike action in Barcelona, Madrid and Asturias. In the framework of international relations, the resurgence of Cold War and the outbreak of the Korean War, explained the change in U.S. attitude with respect to the Franco regime, “anti usual.” In these circumstances, U.S. granted a loan to Spain for the purchase of agricultural products, raw materials and industrial equipment. Other credits are followed prior to the signing of mutual aid pacts, embodied in the three agreements (military, economic and technical) of 26-IX-1953, which allowed the establishment of four U.S. military bases in soil español. The American assistance was not significant in the industrial equipment necessary for economic development as the aid received since 1953 was for U.S. surplus products (Cotton, soybean oil, milk, etc.) And did not solve the problems of scarcity and food shortages, although softened and allowed the elimination of rationing, the disappearance of the black market and price stability until 1956. This paralleled the opening to the outside of the scheme (membership of the UN in 1955) and the resurrection of free market, gradually reducing state intervention and protectionism to connect to the liberal capitalist economic ideology underlying the moment Europe leading to the creation of the European Common Market in 1957. Despite the positive effects, among others, rapid industrial growth, with rates higher than many European countries, inflation from 1955-1956 and the deficit in balance of payments had a negative effect on foreign trade and foreign exchange reserves.

II. Political Opposition During the First Francoism

1. The Opposition in the Interior

A) The Opposition in the Forties

In Spain highlights three fronts in the struggle against Franco: the labor movement, the monarchists and the maquis groups or guerrillas. Clandestine activity of small groups of PCE, the PSOE and the CNT was never interrupted, as evidenced by the number of imprisonments and executions of activists of these organizations which have occurred since 1939. These political groups increased their pressure on the regime at the stage with acts like insulation strikes of 1945 in Catalonia and the Basque Country in 1947 but declined during the decade of 1950. The monarchist groups, whose social base was the nobility and the gentry, practiced an opposition based in the conspiracy. The most difficult time for the dictator was in 1943 when the lieutenant generals sent a joint letter to Franco in which he demanded the restoration of the monarchy. Two years later, the Count of Barcelona, Juan de Borbón, son of Alfonso XIII, issued in Lausanne (Switzerland) a manifesto that called on Franco to withdraw to restore the monarchy in his person. The maquis or guerrilla was formed from two different groups. The first is formed from nuclei that remained scattered in mountainous areas since the end of the Civil War. His goal was to continue the war, which took for finished, waiting for the moment that would allow a foreign attack against the dictatorship. The second group was made up of units that had fought victoriously against the Germans in France, trying to transplant this experience to Spain. Between 1944 and 1950 took part in several areas, and most dramatic action was the invasion failed, the Aran Valley. But isolation between different groups of guerrillas, military repression and the Civil Guard, and the memory of war, civilian experience not want to repeat, explain their failure. Also, do not forget that in 1948 the PCE resigned to continue the armed struggle. In the case of CLM, we must mention in particular the impact of the guerrilla group Levante.

B) The Opposition in the Fifties

In the 1950’s, the domestic opposition has experienced three significant changes: the renunciation of violent acts, social and generational transformation of its members and the momentum of opposition action in universities and Franco within trade unions, to use the elections to shop stewards and judges, business and embryos of the CCOO union. In this regard, in the late 1940’s began to revive a popular protest movement, played by the working classes. These actions were the result of the incipient reorganization of the left, especially the PCE. On the other hand Catholics and labor sectors HOAC (Workers’ Catholic Action) created in 1946 began to raise social and labor demands. Labor disputes in the textile and tram strike in Barcelona, (deterioration of living due to rising prices), in Asturias, led to the imposition of a state of emergency for four months. Similarly, the student movement in 1956 – 1957 developed the first student riots at the universities of Madrid and Barcelona. The most frequent actions of the opposition were the calls for strike, but were illegal, which were claimed economic improvement. The strike was more economical for users of trams in Barcelona, in 1951. These public the Franco regime reacted in two ways: on one hand, hardened by law enforcement against banditry and terrorism (1958) and Public Order Act (1959), and, secondly, accepted some flexibility wage demands with the Collective Agreements Act (1958). On the other hand, as already mentioned, the changes in international relations, with the widening gap between the Western bloc led by the United States and the Soviet bloc led by the Soviet Union, Western powers did soften their sentences to the Franco regime.

2. The Opposition Abroad

In exile developed a very important part of the opposition to Franco. After the war, a large number of MPs, political figures from all parties and convinced republicans went into exile and from the outside tried to maintain republican institutions abroad. The political institutions of the Republic and the Catalan and Basque governments continued to operate in exile. So in August 1945 in Mexico met the Republican Parliament of 1939, although only a hundred members, and Diego Martinez Barrios elected as President of the Republic Giral in exile and as Prime Minister. These organizations were characterized by internal divisions and the gradual removal of the social reality of Spain, this complicates the creation of platforms unit and the development of joint programs to fight against Franco as well as defending forces to create a united front and develop a diplomatic effort to force the fall of the Franco regime, and those advocating the guerrilla struggle as a stage before the popular uprising (communist, anarchist POUM and sectors).