Franco’s Regime: Social Support and Repression in Spain
1.3. Social Supports
The various social attitudes towards Franco have been defined from three types: support, passivity, and rejection. Since its inception, the dictatorship had the support of economic and social elites (landowners, entrepreneurs, financiers, traders, liberal professions, etc.), who recovered the economic, social, and political power lost during the Second Republic. It also had the membership of the small landowners of the North of Spain, who had supported the uprising.
In 1939, the middle classes were a politically disconcerted social sector because during the Civil War they had been clearly overwhelmed by the social revolution. Thus, despite the ideological and political rejection the dictatorship inspired in the most democratic, the trauma of the war turned the middle class mostly passive and apolitical.
Finally, a good part of the popular sectors, considered the losers of the Civil War, were the first players in the opposition to Franco. However, repression, fear, and police control, along with hunger, poverty, and the quest for survival, led the majority of the working class to political inaction.
1.4. “Families” of the Regime
The political structure of the Franco regime was based on groups that had shown their unconditional support to the Leader and in one way or another made up the so-called National Movement. However, within Francoism coexisted various “families” or groups of influence.
The first part of the Franco regime were the groups that had given unconditional support to the rebellion of 1936: Falangists, Carlists, ultracatholic and monarchist Alfonsinos. Also had some recognition sectors incorporated into Francoism during the war, such as some radical Republicans, members of the CEDA, and the Catalan Lliga Catalana. The Church also created associations or groups of pressure of Catholic inspiration that enjoyed influence, such as the National Catholic Association of Propagandists (ACNDP) in the 1950s, or Opus Dei, in the sixties.
2.1. Instruments of Repression
During the Civil War, the rebels had manifested a clear will to eliminate all those who had not supported the uprising or were considered enemies of Spain. Thus, in the ominous national zone, the insurgents gave free rein to an indiscriminate repression against the Republicans (detentions, public beatings, shootings, etc.).
The end of the conflict did not mean the end of the violence, but rather the institutionalization of repression. With this purpose, a series of coercive laws were created and justice was subjected to the government, which meant the disappearance of an independent judiciary.