Munich Congress: Spain’s Opposition to Franco in 1962
The Opposition to Franco: Munich Congress, 1962
Source: Resolution agreed upon by the Congress of Munich, 1962.
1) Introduction
This is a primary source of political and public nature. The collective author is the 118 delegates participating in the Spanish Congress of the European Movement in Munich, who unanimously approved this resolution. These delegates represented various groups opposing the Franco regime, both from within Spain and in exile.
The resolution was approved in June 1962, during the Franco dictatorship, in Munich, Germany, where conditions allowed for such a meeting. The document outlines the conditions Spain needed to meet for admission to European institutions: representative government, recognition of human rights, respect for regional identities, freedom of association and the right to strike, and freedom for political parties to form. In essence, it calls for the democratization of the regime.
2) Immediate Background
Spain was undergoing a period of economic and social change. After the hardships of the post-war era (1940s) and the failure of autarky (1950s), the era of developmentalism began with the Stabilization Plan of 1959. Workers in major regions began staging protests demanding better wages and labor freedoms. The opposition to the Franco regime was also reorganizing, with renewed activity from old political parties and the emergence of new groups on both the right and left.
In the spring of 1962, a wave of strikes originated in the Asturian mining region and spread to Vizcaya and Madrid, involving approximately 100,000 workers. Although largely spontaneous, these strikes represented a challenge to the government, as strikes were forbidden. Some believed this marked the beginning of a powerful destabilizing movement led by the PCE (Spanish Communist Party). Fearing a rapid decline of Franco, moderate opposition groups (liberals, social democrats, socialists, monarchists, democrats, nationalists) sought to anticipate events, leading to the Munich Congress.
3) Remote Antecedent
The Franco regime emerged in 1939 after a bloody civil war, during which Franco assumed the highest military title (“Generalissimo”), civil title (“Head of the State Government”), and political title (Chief of the Traditionalist Spanish Falange). The end of the war resulted in the flight of thousands of Republicans, who formed a significant exiled opposition to Franco, even maintaining institutions like the “Republican government in exile.” Some delegates at the Munich Congress were in this situation.
Within Spain, especially during the 1940s, the repression of any opposition was extremely harsh. Laws such as the Law of Political Responsibilities (1939) and the Law for the Suppression of Communism and Freemasonry (1940) were enforced. Military and civilian trials resulted in thousands of death sentences, imprisonment, property seizures, and exile. Opposition was virtually nonexistent.
Between 1944 and 1948, the PCE managed to organize a guerrilla movement within Spain (the Maquis), hoping to facilitate intervention by the Allies at the end of World War II. In the 1950s, the first social and labor protests emerged in Catalonia and Biscay, as well as among university students. The PCE became the only opposition party with some operational structure within Spain, while maintaining its leadership in exile. Its policy was based on action within mass organizations and popular movements, and on “national reconciliation,” which led it to seek alliances with opposition groups who had fought on the Nationalist side during the civil war.
4) Conclusion
Franco’s government reacted very negatively to the publicity surrounding the Munich meeting. The official press labeled it “the collusion of Munich.” Its importance stemmed from the participation of moderate opposition groups and prestigious figures such as Salvador de Madariaga, monarchists, and former Franco supporters like Satrústegui, Ridruejo, and Álvarez de Miranda. Upon their return to Spain, many attendees were imprisoned or exiled, and measures were taken to suppress the opposition movement.